IN a joint cross-border crime prevention operation last week, South African police and army seized suspected stolen livestock including some 300 sheep and 20 cows, as well as 14 sacks of dagga. Police said on Monday that the operation, carried out by about 20 police and 40 SA National Defence Force troops using horses and motorcycles in the mountains above the north-eastern Free State town of Phuthaditjhaba, targeted traditional routes used by rustlers and dagga smugglers over the mountains between South Africa and Lesotho.