THOHOYANDOU – They thought they were fooling the law but their plans for transporting 85 arms of dagga from Gauteng to Venda were foiled by the wisdom of the Thohoyandou police who swiftly acted on a tip-off to stop their move.

The carefully wrapped and sealed dagga, weighing 38,7 kg, was loaded into a bus from Gauteng but police received a tip-off that the dagga would be offloaded at Sibasa at approximately 15:30 on Monday. Members of the Thohoyandou SAPS’s Operation Toxic Algae team arrived at Sibasa minutes after the dagga was loaded into a red sedan. Police chased the sedan and arrested three suspects who were found with the dagga arms. A fourth suspect handed himself over to the police a few hours later.

According to Insp Nkanukeni Raedani of the Thohoyandou SAPS, they received a message that two boxes containing 85 arms of dagga, worth R15 800, were being loaded onto a bus from Gauteng to Sibasa. “We immediately acted on the tip-off and went to wait for the bus at Sibasa. Unfortunately, the dagga was already loaded in the red sedan which took off in the direction of Maniini.”

Raedani said the suspects at first denied that they had dagga in their possession. “They had already taken the dagga boxes into a house. We searched the house and found the boxes, but the suspects said the boxes contained assignments that were due to be delivered to a certain local college. We immediately opened the neatly wrapped boxes and found the 85 dagga arms. Three suspects, aged 30, 31 and 37, were arrested at once. The fourth suspect aged 33 handed himself over to the police the same day.”

The suspects have not appeared in court and they were still in custody at the time of going to press.