Cape Flats raid nets multi-million rand abalone haul

A tip off led Cape Town police to a Pelican Heights house where they seized dried abalone worth millions of rands.

|||

Cape Town - Police swooped on a house in Pelican Heights, Grassy Park, seizing dried abalone worth several million rand, Western Cape police said on Thursday.

Police spokeswoman Noloyiso Rwexana said police received a tip-off about possible illegal activity at the house in Osprey street before they pounced and discovered the premises were being used as an abalone processing facility.

“Two large steel pots, still filled with fluid from cooking, were in one of the rooms, while various items of equipment were found in a second room. A third room, the drying room, had numerous shelves and plastic crates filled with thousands of units of dried abalone,” said Rwexana.

“In the garage the members found a Hyundai panel van filled with crates of dried abalone. In addition to the abalone and vehicle, numerous items of equipment were seized which include, among other, the cooking pots, gas cylinders and burners, fans, drying shelves and a scale.”

While the exact value of the abalone would only be determined after it had been counted and weighed by the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, police estimate it could be in the region of “quite a few million rands”.

Two men, aged 23 and 43, and a woman, aged 45, were arrested at the house. They were expected to appear in the Muizenberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

African News Agency