Hawks raid Soweto and Middelburg homes in co-ordinated drugs swoop

Hawks officials conducted simultaneous “disruptive operations” to combat clandestine drug activities at a plot in Middelburg and a house in Diepkloof, Soweto.

Seven suspects were arrested in Mpumalanga, the elite police unit said on Wednesday morning.

The occupant of a house in Diepkloof, believed to be a storage facility for drug-manufacturing chemicals, was also arrested.

“This is still an active scene and the value of items being confiscated is yet to be quantified,” said the Hawks.

National police spokesperson Brig Vishnu Naidoo confirmed that one person was arrested at the house in Diepkloof while seven were arrested in Mpumalanga.

“This is a major breakthrough in our efforts to combat drug abuse in our country and every time we uncover such laboratories, we nip the problem of drug manufacturing and distribution in the bud,” said national police commissioner Gen Khehla Sitole.