Tourist held after R2.5m drug stash seized

A BRITISH tourist is to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court today charged with dealing in 9kg of tik worth R2.5 million.

The Hawks and the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit seized the drug at a storage facility in Table View on Wednesday after they had kept the tourist under surveillance and arrested him, police spokesman André Traut said.

He said the 34-year-old man

‘This 9kg of tik could destroy an entire community’

had a three-month tourist visa.

“He will be charged with dealing in drugs,” Traut said yesterday.

British Consulate spokeswoman Isabel Potgieter said the tourist would be offered consular assistance, including notifying his family and giving him a list of local legal advisers.

“All of that would be his choice. If he so desires, we would also visit him in prison to check on his well-being,” she said.

Shafiek Davids, director of the Sultan Bahu rehabilitation centre in Mitchells Plain, said: “The damage 9kg of tik can cause in the community would be absolutely disastrous.

“It could destroy generations. Not only families, but an entire community can be destroyed.”

He said the authorities were engaged in a massive struggle to contain the influx of drugs into the country.

“This nine kilograms of tik may be a lucky strike, but each gram of tik that is out there is already a gram too many,” Davids said.