WATCH: Multimillion-rand Soweto drug lab found

Police have pounced on a drug laboratory in Orlando West, Soweto, identified as a drug laboratory on Thursday morning.

The house was being used as a multimillion-rand drug laboratory for mandrax production.

National commissioner of police General Khehla Sithole said the house was confirmed to have been in operation as a drug laboratory.

Sithole said the police were looking for “a lot of suspects” linked to the drug-manufacturing household.

He said the residence was proven to have been in “operation for a while”, with the duration still to be investigated.

“There are a lot of suspects that we are looking for. All we can explain is that this is a house that has been in operation. It obviously has employers or supervisors, and it also has workers,” said Sithole, who implied a massive number of suspects were wanted.

VIDEO: National Commissioner of Police General Khehla Sitole – Police are searching for a number of suspects linked to a house in Soweto (Orlando West) which was used as a drug laboratory. #SowetoDrugLab pic.twitter.com/6D9GefqEYV

— Bafana Nzimande (@nzimandebafana) April 12, 2018

Sithole added it was clear there was a production process in the preliminary investigations, and police were sifting through the findings.

He said it was identified that there were sellers who took the drugs from the residence, adding to the number of wanted suspects.

“There are suspects that are of a higher ranking,” he said, seconding his previous statement of the large number of suspects still to be brought to book.

He said there were questions from journalists that formed part of the conventional and unconventional police investigations, and for obvious reasons, police could only release minimal information at this stage.

No arrests have been confirmed.