West African drug syndicates are running amok in Durban’s Point area and last year alone the area saw an estimated R1,4-billion change hands in narcotics deals, according to a senior criminal investigator.
Said Detective Inspector Barney Dreyer, addressing a breakfast seminar on Thursday, Turning the Tide on Crime, hosted by the Independent Projects Trust: ”If we don’t do something about the West African threat, we won’t have a country left and Obassanjo will be our president.”
Dreyer quoted British police who have remarked that Durban will become the next and main global drug distribution point in the world.
Dreyer said the figure netted in the Point excluded compressed dagga exported from Durban and the activities of street peddlars.
Since 1990 the drug trade in SA had escalated by 70%. West African nationals are responsible for 80% of all drug trafficking in Durban.
Said Dreyer: ”One hundred percent of the drug trade in the Point area is controlled by West African Nationals.
”The illicit West African drug trafficking trade within Durban and surrounding areas has reached saturated proportions, to such an extent that suppliers are broadcasting the availability of stock and are openly selling their merchandise at street level.”
According to research carried out by the National Drug Desk, KwaZulu-Natal has the second highest level of drug related cases.
Statistics studied for the past three years reflects a constant increase in drug related crimes for the Greater Durban area, and more specifically the Point area.
Some West African national were involved in crimes including possession of narcotics; possession of stolen property; dealing in illegal firearms and ammunition; and money laundering.
A senior investigator, part of Operation West, which mainly deals in narcotics and organised crime, Dreyer said his team’s main goal was to make Durban a tourist destination by eliminating crime and criminal strongholds. – Sapa