South African Revenue Service (Sars) customs officials and the Hawks seized 1.6 tons of illegally harvested frozen abalone, valued at R2.37 million, at the Port of Durban at the end of last week.
According to Sars, the sting operation was initiated after the Hawks seized illegally harvested abalone from a container in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
“Based on the intelligence from the Port Elizabeth bust, a ship travelling to Sri Lanka was ordered to return to South Africa and arrived in Durban earlier this week,” said a Sars spokesperson. “A suspicious container was removed from the ship and inspected after two Sars customs sniffer dogs indicated the possible concealment of endangered species products in the container,” he said.
The 156 boxes of frozen abalone found in the container were handed over to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Hawks for further investigation.
