Major heroin bust from Ballito

The Hawks swooped down on a house in Ballito that lead them to a heroin lab in La Lucia and the arrest of 24 people at the weekend.

The events that lead to the arrest  and interception of more than 20 000 heroin straws, ready for distribution, were set in motion by vigilant Ballito residents. The haul had a street value of more than R500 000.

The letting agent of the holiday home on the corner of Sandra Road and Compensation Beach Road, Ballito responded to staff reports of suspicious activities at the property at around 10.30 am on Saturday.

Six women inside the house claimed to have been locked in by someone, which prompted the landlord to call Specialised Rescue Unit’s Quentin Power to open the doors for him.

Power, a locksmith by trade, opened the doors and found the keys inside the house as well as thousands of straws and sealers, used for packaging heroin. He immediately contacted the police.

The letting agent called the man who rented the house from him under the pretence of renting it for a family and refused housekeeping staff access because he said they brought their own housekeeper. He was detained for questioning.

Umhlali SAPS’s Sgt Neelan Murugan said sniffer dogs did not find any drugs at the Ballito house but the discovery lead to a house in Forest Drive, La Lucia, where 21 foreign men from Malawi, Burundi and Tanzania, two South African women and one South African man were arrested and charged with drug possession.

“We left the house in Ballito at around 5 pm and were busy at the La Lucia house until 3.30 am,” said Neelan.

Hawks spokesperson, Hangwani Mulaudzi said they also arrested 18 Malawians in two previous heroin busts in the last two weeks in Margate (9) and Point, Durban (9).

In both cases, police seized heroin worth more than R7 million.

“We are making inroads in the fight against drugs. These are just the runners but we are getting closer to the king pins,” said Mulaudzi.

He said the three heroin cases were being handled separately but they were looking for possible links. The 24 appeared in court on Monday but the case was remanded for seven days.

“We suspect the drugs were destined for Phoenix and Chatsworth because those are big drug areas,” said SAPS KZN provincial spokesperson, Major Thulani Zwane.

Just as the house in Ballito, the La Lucia house was not a permanent drug lab but a holiday home that was rented through an agent for a week. The Courier visited the La Lucia house and an officer on the scene said drug syndicates typically changed their location and cell phone numbers every couple of days, making them difficult to track down.

By late Monday afternoon the police tape had been removed but there were still piles of plastic packets, left-over straws and oasis floral foam, used to support the straws while being filled with heroin powder. A few of the straws still contained some heroin. The house had been vandalised, items stolen and a sliding door shattered.

Caretaker of the La Lucia house, Alida van Rooyen, was totally blindsided and said the man who collected the keys from her on Thursday looked decent. However, she found it odd that he did not want garden services to come in on Friday.

Van Rooyen said the tenant was referred to her when the house he wanted in Ballito was not readily available.

Neighbours were shocked at what happened.

“We never noticed anything unusual,” said Peter Booysen who owns the bottle store and jewellery shop across the road from the La Lucia house.

Specialised Rescue Unit’s Quentin Power said syndicates typically chose locations with easy access to main roads, high walls and busy roads in areas where they could blend in.