Port Alfred K9 members were on top form on Friday August 5 catching two vehicles in different incidents transporting abalone worth around R193 000. THe South African Police Service’s spokesperson Warrant Officer Nkohli Majola explained how the incident unfolded.
He said the K9 Patrol teams had arrested two men an hour apart and seized abalone valued at R192,996.
In the first incident, on Friday morning 5 August 2022 at around 2.30am, Port Alfred police were patrolling the R72 when they spotted a suspicious vehicle, a white VW Golf TSI with a CA registration number. Their attempts to pull it over failed, and a high-speed chase ensued.
Moments later, the driver of the Golf lost control and the vehicle veered off the road.
The police arrested one of the occupants while the others escaped. Eight bags of abalone were found stashed in the vehicle. The 467 units of abalone weighed 72.81 kilograms and were valued at R131,058.
“[In] the second incident, members were busy at the scene when a second vehicle, a Toyota Starlet, disregarded police signals to stop and drove past at high speed,” Nkohli said.
“A high-speed chase ensued, and in an attempt to evade the arrest, the suspects’ vehicle drove into a dead end. The two suspects alighted and started running in different directions.”
K9 member Udze gave chase and caught one of the suspects. The police found four bags full of abalone (213 units) valued at R61,938.
Nkohli said the two men were arrested and detained for contravening the Marine Living Resource Act 18 of 1998 Reg 36 – illegal possession of abalone. He added that the two men aged 25 and 36 years old were expected to appear in the Port Alfred magistrate’s court on Monday, August 8 2022.
This success followed the arrest of two men and the recovery of diving equipment valued R300,000 last Tuesday. The two had since appeared in court on charges of conspiracy to commit abalone poaching, he said.