The fight against drugs in Gauteng has now escalated to a full-scale war. “Drug dealing and use are now a massive problem in .” These were the words of Warrant Officers all over Gauteng after they discovered a huge cannabis plantation in the veld between the N1 highway earlier this week.
During the week, an alleged drug dealer was also arrested, the last of about 12 drug related arrests made by Centurion Police alone in the past few weeks. A Nigerian national was caught with thousands of rands worth of cocaine and heroin, police said, adding that they believed that school children were being targeted by these unscrupulous dealers. Meanwhile, police say that the discovery of the cannabis plantation was a major break-through.
“We are doing an operation in the area, tracking illegal immigrants and vagrants in the veld, when we stumbled upon the plantation. Most of the dagga plants were between two and four meters in height.”
It takes anything between six months and a year for a plant to grow to this size. “The plantation was not clearly visible as the plants were obstructed by other vegetation. Cannabis plants can also easily be mistaken for khaki bush.”
One of the warrant officers added that they removed about 300 cannabis plants. They also found small plastic bags in a gutter pipe nearby which they believed dealers used for packaging the drugs. “There were four different sizes of plastic bags.”
One suspect managed to escape. “Drugs have become a major problem in all our cities. Earlier this week Warrant Officer from centurion arrested a Nigerian drug dealer. “We received information from an informer and when we searched the vehicle we found about R10 000 worth of heroin and cocaine hidden in front of the vehicle above the front right wheel. The drugs were in small little packets,” explained the Warrant Officer.
The police were allegedly fighting a losing battle when it came to arresting dealers. According to a reliable and trustworthy source, the same suspects were back on the streets within a few days after their arrest.
“This is because of a lenient court verdict where the case is thrown out, allegedly due to paperwork not being in order, or alleged results that has not been received from the laboratories testing the drugs.”
