Customs officers praised for ORT bust
CUSTOMS officials at OR Tambo International Airport discovered 41 pieces of rhino horn valued at R115.66 million in a consignment declared as “fine art”.
In a statement, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) said that during an inspection of warehouses at OR Tambo on Tuesday, one of the customs teams, aided by detector dogs, detected and intervened to stop a consignment of goods destined for Kuala Lumpur via Doha.
“During a physical inspection of the consignment, customs officials discovered six boxes containing 41 pieces of rhino horn, which had been concealed in carbon paper and foil and wrapped in traditional material.”
The Hawks were alerted and a criminal case was registered with police for further investigation. “The same day, during the warehouse inspections, customs officials discovered abalone valued at close to R1 million destined for Hong Kong, and ephedrine, valued at R600 000, which had been hidden in two printer cartridges and destined for Madagascar.”
Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said criminal and illicit economic activities were rife and result in billions of rand of losses in tax and customs revenue to the fiscus…
“This important bust proves the dedication and perseverance of our women and men of customs, who work with other law enforcement agencies at our borders to combat crime.
“We are issuing a stern warning to those who are engaged in this criminal syndicated work that we will spare no effort in confronting and dealing with any criminal acts,” Kieswetter said.