Gauteng police estimate Westonaria drug lab generated nearly R300 million over three years
Police believe the value of the operation including profits, operating costs, and machinery sits at around R280 million.
A multidisciplinary police team raided a farm in Westonaria where they found high-tech machinery, contraband, and chemicals used to manufacture and tablet mandrax. A multidisciplinary police team raided a farm in Westonaria where they found high-tech machinery, contraband, and chemicals used to manufacture and tablet mandrax. Picture: Mongezi Koko/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng police estimate that a clandestine drug lab uncovered in Westonaria on Thursday generated nearly R300 million over three years.
This morning, a multidisciplinary police team raided the farm, west of Johannesburg, where they found high-tech machinery, contraband, and chemicals used to manufacture and tablet mandrax.
Police believe the value of the operation, including profits, operating costs, and machinery sits at around R280 million.
Cadaver dogs from the police’s K9 unit led officers to an isolated property where an estimated R10 million worth of mandrax was being processed.
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When police moved in, they found the farm owner in the process of converting a powdered substance into a deadly, illicit drug.
He was arrested on the spot.
Provincial Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni explains the meticulous process used to make the drugs.
“The powder has to be manufactured, and then, in which sense, you have to have the machinery mixing it with different components, which eventually form a tablet.”
Police suspect the operation had cross-border links and have not ruled out more arrests.