KZN police dismantle hydroponic dagga lab with machinery worth about R10 million, two arrested
|Published
Durban – Police have arrested two suspects who were operating an illegal hydroponic dagga laboratory at a farm in Fountains Head in the eMkhomazi area on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said in a statement on Monday that two suspects aged 30 and 33, were found to be operating a clandestine hydroponic dagga laboratory.
Netshiunda said police were doing routine patrols in the area when they stumbled upon the illegal dagga laboratory.
“One thousand two hundred dagga plants and dagga processing machines worth approximately R10 million were found at the lab,” said police.
According to Netshiunda, police are closing in on a third suspect who is believed to be the owner of the dagga laboratory.
Police said the arrested suspects will appear in court soon.
In May, ‘The Mercury’ reported that the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court sentenced a 54-year-old man to 10 years’ direct imprisonment for dealing in dagga.
According to the Directorate For Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo in the report, Nkosinathi Dladla was arrested by the Pietermaritzburg K9 unit along Umlaza Road near Tala Valley on April 20, 2020.
Mhlongo said the arrest came after police received information about a truck that was transporting dagga. The truck was spotted on the N3 highway and it was followed then stopped and a search was conducted.
The report said upon searching the truck, police found 44 bags of dagga to the street value of approximately R2.5 million.