The Umzimkhulu SAPS Station Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Ruiters, sourced information that a huge consignment of dagga was going to be transported via Ixopo to Durban.

He planned a clandestine operation with Lieutenant Muziwabantu Memani and lay in wait in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It is alleged that at 05:15, a white Mitsubishi bakkie with a canopy drove through the R56 Road from Ixopo.

The police officers intercepted the vehicle and interviewed the two occupants.

Upon searching the bakkie, the policemen found 17 nylon mealie sacks full of dagga. The two men were promptly placed under arrest and have been detained until their appearance in the Ixopo Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

The dagga was seized and the Mitsubishi bakkie impounded as it had been used in the commission of an offence.

The recovered drugs weighed 541 kilograms with a street value of over R500 000.

STATEMENT BY PORT SHEPSTONE SAPS