CAPE TOWN, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- South African police on Thursday destroyed about 5 million U.S. dollars worth of drugs in Cape Town, the country's legislative capital.
"Today, the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), General Fannie Masemola, presided over the destruction of drugs worth 90 million rand (about 4.76 million dollars) in Cape Town," said the SAPS in a statement issued on its website.
According to the statement, these drugs, including crystal meth and cocaine, were confiscated during police operations in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa at roadblocks and tracing operations.
The SAPS said this was the fourth drug destruction process in this financial year, with the most recent drug destruction taking place in Gauteng Province in October 2023, where 800 million rand worth of drugs were destroyed.
"In this financial year alone, close to a billion rand worth of drugs have been destroyed," said the police service. "In the 2022/2023 financial year, 6 tons of drugs to the value of 2 billion rand were destroyed."
The statement also quoted Masemola as saying that police were registering great successes in intercepting drugs in the country.
"It is worth noting that in the past three months, (the) police have seized cocaine worth 200 million rand in various drug busts at our ports of entry," said Masemola. "This drug destruction thus demonstrates the relentless efforts of our men and women in blue to remove these drugs that destroy lives and livelihoods."
