Drug mules getting inventive

2008-11-21 10:21

Marelize Barnard

Cape Town - The cocaine was not in the coffee container. The coffee container itself was made from the drug.

It wasn't a carry bag full of drugs. The rubber handles on the bag contained the drugs.

Senior superintendent Anton Oliver, commander of the police unit at Cape Town International Airport, said these were some of the strange tricks drug mules had used in their attempts to get past the eagle eyes of the police.

But it wasn't easy. On Thursday, while police held their annual media conference at the airport, a Durban woman was found with half a kilogram of cocaine hidden in her private parts. She had also swallowed 52 containers with drugs and had hoped to smuggle these Buenos Aires "purchases" into the country.

A flight later, with the help of Jesse the police dog, a suitcase full of tik was discovered on the luggage conveyor belt. There was 3.5kg tik in the bag with a street value of R1m. It is the biggest find of this drug at the airport.

On Thursday, 28kg of methcathinone, better known as cat, was also found at the airport and a Somali citizen was arrested.

'A practised eye'

Airport police do not like to reveal how they are able to spot mules from a distance. Inspector Errol Wildschudt caught the Durban woman. All he was prepared to say, was that she had attracted attention when she had left the country. "A practised eye," was how he described his detective work.

National police spokesperson captain Dennis Adriao, revealed some of the successes police had achieved at the airport between January and October:

- More than R20m worth of drugs were seized

- Activities at two big Cape Town drug labs were uncovered after a drug trail was followed from the airport. Furthermore, large containers full of chemicals for crack cocaine were seized, as well as lab equipment worth thousands of rands.

- Heroin (R1.3m), cocaine (R18m) and tik (R1.4m) are of the drugs seized during the first ten months of this year.

- A total of 56 people were arrested with forged passports.

- Four people were nabbed with card scanners used for fraud and the falsification of bank cards.

-Twenty-four stolen vehicles were found.

- In collaboration with the airports company, Acsa, there was a policy of no tolerance regarding crime. A total of 265 theft complaints had been made, ranging from the theft of an airline blanket to toilet paper.

- Die Burger