Members of the Welkom K9 unit received information from Free State Counter Narcotics of a bus traveling from Gauteng to Cape Town on the N1 road, carrying khat plant drugs.
The bus was identified on 2 April near Ventersburg, and pulled over by the police.
“Permission was sought to search the vehicle and while members were busy, 18 brown carton boxes were found. The drivers told the police that they accepted the boxes from occupants of a white Toyota Quest sedan at the Grasmere toll gate plaza, and they were given R2 000 to transport the boxes to Cape Town.
There were damp newspaper wrappings with a total of 3 880 bundles of the suspected drug plants found inside 18 boxes.
A driver (40) and his assistant (41) were arrested for possession of drugs with the street value of about R116 400. The arresting officers were Consts. Jacobus van Wyk, Lebohang Khuto and Khanyisa Ntoyi, and Sgt Velaphi Mtjale of the Welkom K9 unit.
The suspects appeared in the Ventersburg Magistrate’s Court on 4 April.
