Dried abalone worth R1-million and declared as “car side mirror casings” was uncovered by South African Revenue Service (Sars) officials on Wednesday. A statement said that “customs officials were tipped off by airline staff about a suspicious looking consignment at a cargo shed at the Cape Town International Airport” and almost half a ton of the molluscs was found.“Retrieved documents indicated that the abalone had been declared as car parts‚ specifically side mirror casings‚ destined for export to Hong Kong‚” Sars said.“The goods had not formally been cleared. The abalone was apparently delivered at the the export department. The only documents that could be retrieved were the customs clearing instruction and invoices stating Hong Kong as country of destination.” Sars also reported that its customs official intercepted 4,200 heroin capsules - worth about R314,000 - from a female suspected of being a drug mule travelling from the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The heroin capsules were among approximately 10,000 pills with different brand names found in the traveller’s luggage by two inspectors working at the import luggage scanner‚” the statement said.“A Sars festive volunteer with translation skills” ascertained that the French-speaking suspect claimed to been“recruited on Facebook by two unknown women who promised her good profits and prospects of a good market for selling the drugs if she managed to traffic the goods into the Republic”. “The pills were detained and handed over to the South African Police‚ who arrested the woman. The remaining capsules were also detained‚ and handed over to Port Health.”..