Vigilant crew pulls off biggest drug bust

Ray Smuts THE HAULS are getting bigger and bigger at Saldanha Bay - cocaine rather than fish - as police last week made the largest ever drug bust in South Africa; 155kg of the life-wrecker with a street value of R325 million aboard a vessel bound for China. This find, thanks once again to a vigilant ship's crew, follows that of July 19 at Saldanha when 116kg of cocaine with a street value of R250 million, thought then to have been the largest seizure yet, was discovered on the cargo vessel Red Cedar bound for China from Argentina. Much of the stash had been hidden in the vessel's cooling water intake which would indicate that a clandestine underwater diving operation was carried out. Last week's discovery aboard the Anangel Destiny sailing from Porta da Madeira in Brazil to Qingbao in China, gives credence to the belief that the two incidents may well be linked due to a similar modus operandi, right down to identical packaging of the dastardly drug. As was the case with the Red Cedar find, the crew of the Anangel Destiny was carrying out a routine inspection when they found ten suspicious plastic-covered blocks floating in their intake filters. Once the batch had been handed to the master, the vessel was ordered to Saldanha where police eventually discovered another 43 blocks identified as 80% pure cocaine.