Asset Forfeiture Unit to confiscate KZN farm allegedly used as drug lab

The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) in KwaZulu-Natal has obtained an asset preservation order from the Pietermaritzburg High Court for a farm near Newcastle allegedly being used as a drug laboratory.

The farm in Ingogo is valued at about 1.2 million Rand and covers an area of ​​about 132 hectares.

National Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said suspicious activity at the farm came to light after the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations had followed up information from an informant.

“During an August 2019 search operation, members of the SA Police Service Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) present confirmed that the types of exhibits found on found on the farm are similar to those found at the crime scene of a clandestine drug lab.

< p>“The exhibits were then taken to the SAPS Pretoria FSL for chemical analysis, and in some of the analyzed n exhibits, 25 kg of methamphetamine were found.

“Based on the evidence, the state contends that there was reasonable cause to believe that the farm was an instrument of a crime set forth in Schedule 1 of the Act on Drugs and drug trafficking, in this case the manufacture, supply and possession of drugs and drug trafficking,” Ramkisson-Kara said. p>

On the day of the execution The search warrant could not establish who was responsible for making the drugs – so no one on the farm has been charged with any offences, she said.

“The warrant was successfully obtained by prosecutor Nazreena Sayed. The farm remains in the care of the curator until the AFU receives a confiscation order.”

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