Drugs worth an alleged R8m (with some funky maths) seized

Police have seized drugs estimated at R8 million and arrested a man in what has been described as one of the biggest drug busts of the year.

The 39-year-old suspect was arrested in the joint Hawks and Crime Intelligence operation in Adderley Street on Monday night.

Police say the suspect, a Nigerian, tried to sell drugs to undercover agents just before his arrest. He had 2.1kg of tik in his possession. An evidence trail led police to various addresses where a total of R8 million worth of drugs, R250,000 in cash and equipment for drug manufacturing was confiscated.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said he could not disclose specific information about the crime intelligence which led to the arrest, but confirmed that the suspect had been subject to investigation for a significant period.

After arresting the man, police searched his flat in Green Point.

They next raided a nightclub in Darling Street linked to the suspect.

The name of the club could not be disclosed because it was still unclear whether the suspect owned or rented the premises, said Traut.

Then police raided another apartment in Buitenkant Street which police believe was used as a site for manufacturing tik.

Police also searched premises in Table View, where R250 000 in cash was confiscated. The money is believed to be profits from drug deals.

“We regard the arrest of the suspect and the confiscation of his drugs as a significant blow to the Western Cape drug trade,” said Traut.

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato congratulated police on Tuesday. “I am delighted at the large quantity of drugs effectively taken off streets by this bust,” he said.

 

Packages confiscated at various locations during Tuesday’s drug bust:

* 2kg of heroin (R600 000)

* 3kg of cocaine (R900 000)

* 4kg of methamphetamine (R1 200)

* 20kg drum of ephedrine (R800 000)

* 1kg of rocks (moon) (R300 000)

* 500g of methamphetamine (R150 000)

* 1kg of methamphetamine (R150 000)

* 5kg of ephedrine (R200 000)

* 2kg of cocaine (R600 000)

* 2kg of methamphetamine (R600 000)

* An undisclosed weight of methamphetamine to the value of R1.5 million was seized during the undercover deal in Adderley Street

- Cape Argus

Whoa - Cocaine and Methamphetamine are the same price, sounds like Dave Bayever / Macnamara's kinda expertise here... thumb suck a something spew it as fact.

You people are talking CRAP, BULLSHIT, OUT YOUR ASS!!!

Alcohol saga: Premier’s office employee sentenced

A woman who fraudulently obtained R20,000 worth of liquor while employed in the Western Cape premier's office was sentenced to two years' house arrest on Wednesday.

Nathali B Jacobs, 24, appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before magistrate Amrith Chabillal, in plea-bargain proceedings.

According to the plea-bargain agreement, Jacobs was an administrative assistant in the premier's social transformation programme (STP) and was responsible for procurement in respect of conferences relating to the programme.

Her duties included the processing and verification of payments to service providers.

According to the charge sheet, she arranged a conference at the St George Hotel in the Cape Town at a cost of R110,000.

However, fewer people than expected attended the conference, which resulted in an overpayment to the hotel of R20,278.

At her request, the hotel supplied her with liquor to the value of the overpayment, instead of crediting the STP bank account.

Prosecutor Derek Vogel told the court that Jacobs was unable to repay the money, and that she had abused her position of trust in the premier's office.

Legal aid attorney Haley Lawrence said Jacobs was under psychiatric treatment for severe depression.

Jacobs was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for five years on condition that she submit herself to two years' house arrest. - Sapa

‘A generation lost to tik’

Ten years after tik exploded on to the Cape Flats, the effect on children whose mothers used the drug while pregnant has made its presence felt in schools.

The “tik generation” is now in primary school and teachers are reporting severe behavioural problems and mental health problems akin to foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

One principal said he doubted that many of the tik generation pupils would make it to high school.

Community activist Venetia Orgill said one generation had already been lost and future generations would be too unless something drastic was done.

The provincial Education Department does not track the effects of tik on education. Department spokeswoman Bronagh Casey said: “We do not have stats or details on cases that deal specifically with tik.”

But principals and activists say there is definitely an increase in the number of children seeking treatment for mental health conditions and schools are taking strain.

While unable to provide statistics, provincial Health Department spokeswoman Faiza Steyn said there was an increased need for mental health treatment among children.

A 2006 study showed 10 percent of pregnant women in the Tygerberg area used the drug during their pregnancies.

Orgill said that in some of the classrooms she had seen, almost half of the children displayed FAS-like symptoms. FAS is characterised by brain damage, facial deformities and growth deficits.

Dawn Petersen, principal of Hanover Park’s Blomvlei Primary, and Albert Arendse, principal of Bridgeville Primary in Bridgetown, said they were doing what they could in a “crisis of major proportions”.

Petersen said parents as young as 22 were enrolling their children in Grade R. She suspected many of the children had been exposed to tik.

“It is a sad state of affairs. It has become acceptable for a teenager to be pregnant and on drugs,” she said.

The mayoral committee member for health, Lungiswa James, said they were seeing “many pregnant women, young mothers or mothers with young children addicted to tik”.

James said tik babies were usually hyperactive and developed at a slower rate.

Children were also increasingly been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, and showed increasingly risky and deviant behaviour.

Confirming this from a provincial perspective, Steyn acknowledged the increase and said it was placing an additional burden on the state to provide health and social development services to affected children.

Robert Macdonald, head of the provincial Social Development Department, said that while the provincial government had not investigated the impact which children of tik-addicted parents had on government services, they displayed the same type of symptoms as children with FAS.

“Since 2010 we have implemented our strategy and for the second year we have expanded our services and doubled our budget for substance abuse.”

UWC psychology lecturer Charl Davids said not much research on tik use during pregnancy had been done.

But he also spoke about the similarities between tik children and FAS. He said there would be little or no impulse control because of what happens to the baby’s brain during gestation.

He said school psychologists were dealing with an ever-increasing case load.

Davids said more and more companies were approaching them for help as they were picking up that their staff, who were more often than not parents, were using tik.

He said government services, education, social development and health needed to work closer together to deal with what was a “big problem”.

Schools say the WCED’s attempts fall far too short from the real need. One principal, who did not want to be named, said the department had no idea what was truly going on.

Tik affects babies just like

Children born to women who use tik during pregnancy display similar traits to children with foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

It is estimated that SA has 4 000 reported new cases of FAS every year, the highest in the world. Most of these cases are reported in the Northern and Western Cape.

FAS describes children who have growth deficiencies, irreversible mental retardation as well as physical and central nervous system abnormalities due to their mothers’ alcohol intake during pregnancy.

The effects of FAS are permanent and irreversible. There is no cure or treatment. FAS seriously impairs a child's lifetime ability to function mentally, physically and socially.

Experts believe that between one- and two-thirds of all children with special educational needs were affected by their mothers’ alcohol intake during pregnancy.

Although FAS is the most common preventable form of intellectual disability in the world and continues to be a serious public health problem in the Western Cape, it is preventable by women refraining from drinking alcohol during pregnancy. – Source: SA National Council on Alcoholism

- Cape Argus

Cape Town Global Marijuana March - 2012