Hawks arrest R300m hidden heroin suspect

A Belgian wanted in connection with one of South Africa's biggest drug busts has been arrested.

Peter Hering, 48, was arrested at Cape Town International Airport on Monday by Hawks narcotics enforcement bureau officers after he landed on a flight from Abu Dhabi.

But the alleged mastermind behind the plot to smuggle a ton of heroin to Europe in a shipment of wine, Peter Ros, remains at large and is believed to be in his native Holland.

Hering is expected to appear in the Caledon Magistrate's Court today.

Mark Rodrigues, 23, the son of Ros's girlfriend, was also charged in connection with the smuggling plot and is out on bail of R1-million.

Heroin worth almost R300-million was found hidden in a consignment of wine on Witklip farm, between Villiersdorp and Grabouw, in June.

The Hawks later raided the home of Ros, a Harley-Davidson motorcycles dealer in Somerset West, seizing a Lexus, narcotics and two laptops.

But Ros had already left the country, and later Hering left as well on his lawyer's advice.

Speaking to the Sunday Times in July, Hering - who has dual Belgian and South African citizenship - said he would be back in The Strand, where his estranged wife and child live, when the Hawks investigated the case and realised he had "nothing to do with it".