Mpumalanga police rounded up a gang of foreign drug dealers plying narcotics at local night spots in a major operation on Saturday morning, police said.
Spokesperson Superintendent Izak van Zyl said police, assisted by soldiers and officials from the departments of justice, health and home affairs, arrested 22 foreign nationals for dealing in drugs, arrested a further 19 people for being in the country illegally, tested 34 people for using illegal drugs and returned six underage children found in nightclubs to their parents.
The police team probing the gang included detectives from the Lowveld Organised Crime and Crime Intelligence units.
Van Zyl said they concentrated their investigations on Nelspruit and the surrounding towns of Sabie, Hazyview and Lydenburg.
The team, under the command of Senior Superintendent Faan Steenkamp, started arresting syndicate members on Friday morning, after having had them under investigation since November last year.
The operation, which ended early on Saturday morning, included the cordoning off and search of the Personalities night club in Anderson Street, Nelspruit, and two buildings in the same street used by nationals from Pakistan, Nigeria, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia and Mozambique.
”About 300 members of the National Intervention Unit of the police, the Lowveld Dog Unit, Organised Crime units from all over Mpumalanga province, the National Prosecution Authority, the police air wing, the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Health, the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] and local police took part in the operation,” Van Zyl said.
Detectives seized illegal substances including cocaine, mandrax, Ecstasy and LSD with a total street value of more than R200 000.
Nineteen ”undocumented migrants” from Nigeria, Burundi, Pakistan, Mozambique and Tanzania were arrested and ”will be dealt with by the Department of Home Affairs”.
Thirty-four people were identified as possible drug users and were taken to the Rob Ferreira hospital for blood samples.
”The samples are packaged and will be send to the police’s forensic science laboratory for confirmation of the suspicion,” Van Zyl added.
Six under-aged children found in the nightclub were returned to their parents.
”Some of them were also subjected to urinal or blood testing.”
The owner of the club will be charged under the Liquor Act for allowing under-aged children to enter restricted premises.
”This operation was very well coordinated, with the full assistance from the National Prosecution Authority,” police provincial Commissioner Eric Nkabinde added in a statement.
”I applaud all the departments involved in the operation. This is indeed demonstration of force. We shall continue to do so until such time that crime is under control,” Nkabinde said. — Sapa