Two Mozambicans charged after massive drug bust in Pretoria

Jose Vaso Sete and Arlindo Fernand appeared before the Atteridgeville magistrate’s court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs and contravening the Immigration Act by being in the country illegally.

Sete, 53, and Fernand, 44, from Mozambique, were arrested in Erasmia on Wednesday after the Hawks received intelligence about the existence of a drug-manufacturing laboratory in the area.

“On their arrival they allegedly found the two accused attempting to run away and they were apprehended by the police,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said.

After their arrest, police discovered the drug laboratory inside the house with drug manufacturing equipment, drug manufacturing materials and drugs at various stages of production as well as fully manufactured drugs worth about R110m.

The case was postponed until September 18 for an interpreter to be appointed and bail investigations. The accused were remanded.

After their arrest on Wednesday, deputy national commissioner for policing Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, who was at the scene, said this was not a small operation.

“We are talking about a sophisticated manufacturing operation that was allegedly producing about 800,000 Mandrax tablets a day,” Mosikili said.

Mosikili said this was a major blow to a large-scale criminal syndicate and the illicit drug supply chain in South Africa.

“By dismantling this facility, we are disrupting the production capacity of a network capable of flooding our communities with hundreds of thousands of Mandrax tablets every single day.”