Hawks ambushed a house in Pretoria East in Tijger Valley where dried abalone, commonly known in South Africa as perlemoen, worth R600 000 was discovered on Monday morning.
Upon their arrival, the Hawks found dried abalone weighing 200kg and machinery used to cook and dry it. According to the Hawks’ spokesperson, Paul Ramaloko, they acted on a tip-off from the public on Monday.
When Rekord arrived at the scene, a horrible smell of abalone and thousands of flies hung in the air.
“Two men, both Chinese nationals, were found on the premises and were arrested,” Ramaloko explained.
The two men were allegedly operating a fish processing establishment without a permit and were in possession of the abalone illegally.
The type of abalone found is allegedly Haliotis Midea.
One side of the house was turned into the processing area, where all the equipment and abalone were stored, and each room had its own function.
Two rooms were used as drying rooms with a gas burner heater that heated the room up to 50 degrees and large fans that circulated the heat to aid the drying process. Under a carport there was a big pot, salt and sodium hydrosulfite used to cook the abalone.
Before bring weighed, the abalone was packaged in bags of 200.
Ramaloko said the men were expected to appear in the Pretoria magistrate’s court on charges of contravening the Marine Living Resources Act.
