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Cops find drugs in school
15/02/2005 15:21 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Dagga and a knife were found hidden in a grade eight classroom at a Diepsloot school on Tuesday in a raid by more than 100 police using sniffer dogs.
Four youths were also arrested, but not in class. They were caught smoking dagga at a shebeen about 500m from Itirele-Senzele High School, said Pretoria police spokesperson Piletji Sebola.
The raid was a joint operation by crime combating and dog unit police and Johannesburg metro police. It followed tip-offs by concerned parents and the community, said Sebola.
It was also the result of numerous complaints by the school's principal that pupils were carrying weapons, said Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.
About 100 law enforcers swept through the building at 10:00, searching all classrooms, from Grade 8 to Grade 12, housing the school's 1 900 pupils. Then the sniffer dogs were sent in.
Sebola said four rolls of dagga weighing about 300g and a knife were discovered hidden on the floor behind a steel cabinet in a Grade 8 classroom.
Further investigation led police to an illegal shebeen, where they caught four teenagers - aged 16 to 18 - smoking dagga and found more than 20 dagga plants.
The youths had since been arrested for possession of dagga, as had the shebeen owner, who faced charges of selling alcohol to children. Police confiscated 15 cases of beer.
No one was arrested at the school, said Sebola, adding that police believed their mere presence had done much to prevent the use of drugs by school children.
Raids on schools for drugs and weapons would continue, driven by information obtained from the community and parents, he said.
- SAPA
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