British customs officials said on Tuesday they had released the crew of a South African Airways (SAA) plane on bail, after arresting them and seizing cocaine worth R3,6-million (£250 000) on a flight from Johannesburg.
The 15-person crew were detained on Monday evening after 5kg of cocaine was seized — the second time in four weeks that one of the airline’s flight crews has been detained following the discovery of drugs coming into Heathrow.
The nine men and six women were released later on Monday evening after having been interviewed by customs investigators, and told to return to Heathrow Police Station in April, said a customs spokesperson.
Another spokesperson had said on Monday that they were arrested after UK Border Agency officers discovered the drugs in an item of baggage that had arrived on an SAA flight from Johannesburg.
He told Agence France-Presse it was ”very, very unusual” for two separate crews to be arrested in such similar circumstances within such a short period of time, adding: ”We were surprised to find another [haul].”
In January, 10 female and five male SAA crew members were arrested after 50kg of cannabis, with a street value of R2,6-million (£150 000) and 4kg of cocaine, worth R2,3-million (£160 000) were found in three suitcases.
The crew, including the three pilots, were released on unconditional bail and ordered to report back to HMRC investigators at Heathrow airport’s police station on 23 March.
Robyn Chalmers, SAA’s head of group corporate affairs, said on Monday: ”An investigation in Johannesburg, involving SAA aviation security and the SAPS crime intelligence unit, is also under way to establish how security procedures were breached.” She added that the company was cooperating fully with British investigation authorities.
SAA is currently in turmoil after the suspension of its chief executive, Khaya Ngqula. The airline’s board has commissioned an independent investigation into corruption allegations surrounding Ngqula.
A spokesperson for HMRC said the arrests were the first time in recent memory that airline crews had been suspected of smuggling into the UK anything more than a small amount of tobacco over the legal allowance. — AFP, guardian.co.uk