Eastern Cape prosecutors are still using the Drugs Act to prosecute cannabis dealing cases. This emerged after the recent arrest of five men, three of whom were undocumented foreign nationals, during a police raid on an illegal hydroponics grow-op on a farm outside Port Alfred.

A statement from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, said various Eastern Cape police units raided a property on the on Mooiplaas Quarry Road on the outskirts of Port Alfred, and discovered a ‘sophisticated, large-scale clandestine laboratory dedicated to the cultivation of hydroponic cannabis’.

Hawks spokesperson, Lt Col Avele Fumba said “the team further discovered cannabis plants being grown under controlled conditions and various products, including dried cannabis and CBD oils.

“The laboratory was also allegedly used for packaging these cannabis products, ready for distribution. The swift action of the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies led to the arrest of five suspects aged between 22 and 36 at the scene, including three undocumented foreign nationals and two South African males.” Said Lt Col Fumba.

“Furthermore, various exhibits were seized and specialists from the National Forensic Science Laboratory were called in to apply their expertise in processing the scene.”

The suspects appeared in the Port Alfred Magistrates Court on 2 September 2024, where they faced “charges related to the Contravention of Immigration Act, Drug Trafficking Act and dealing in Narcotics medicine Act.”

However, by the time  any trial begins, cannabis may well have been dropped from the Drugs Act, as is the stated intention in the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act, which was passed into law in June this year.

Despite this, SAPS’ Major General Ngwenya commended “ the Hawks' systematic investigative mechanisms aimed at dismantling organized crime networks and bringing perpetrators to justice”.

The Port Alfred raid is the latest action by SAPS in what appears to be a concerted clampdown on unlicensed cannabis grow ops and cannabis dealers.

The police recently stopped a diesel truck on the N1 near Pretoria, seizing what they estimated to be R1,5 million in compressed cannabis, while a large clandestine grow-op in the Magaliesberg was closed down in July.

The raids come as there is increasing evidence that international criminal syndicates have set up shop in South Africa to manufacture and distribute illicit drugs. Although organized crime appears more more interested in higher-margin narcotics such as heroin and metamphetamines, they also dominate the underground cannabis trade. Authorities are also concerned that local drug lords are becoming more powerful and putting increasingly dangerously addictive drugs into the market.