South African Revenue Service Customs officials have seized 1.6 tons of abalone worth an estimated R2.37m in a sting operation at Durban harbour.
SARS spokesperson, Sandile Memela, said that the sting operation was initiated after the Hawks had seized illegally harvested abalone from a container in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
“Based on the intelligence from the Port Elizabeth bust, a ship travelling to Sri Lanka was ordered to return to South Africa and arrived in Durban earlier this week,” he said.
“A suspicious container was removed from the ship and inspected after two SARS Customs sniffer dogs indicated the possible concealment of endangered species products in the container,” Memela said.
“The container was found to contain 156 boxes of frozen abalone to the value of R2.37 million hidden amongst other items.,” he said.
Memela said that the frozen boxes of abalone were handed over to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Hawks for further investigation.
