A Chinese national, who will appear in the Bellville Magistrate Court tomorrow morning, was arrested around 14h00 today, Monday, 6 February 2012 and 5 736 dried abalone as well as various drying processing equipment were confiscated in the biggest abalone-bust so far this year.
Following a tip-off from the public, several officials of the Monitoring, Compliance and Surveillance-division (MCS) of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Hawks and the Environmental Crime Investigation Unit of SANParks, raided the property in the Bellville area that was used in its entirety as an illegal processing plant.
These three partner-organisations will continue to investigate the case and we expect that more arrests will be made in the near future.
DAFF thanks the public for their support and reiterate our plea for continued support of all our efforts to bring such illegal activities to an end and to bring these criminals to book.
For more information:
Lionel Adendorf
Cell: 076 267 5838
