Western Cape: On the evening of Monday 13 June 2016 members of the Cape Town K9 Unit received information of a vehicle illegally transporting marine resources to Cape Town and conducted patrols in the vicinity of Gordon’s Bay. At approximately 19:30 they spotted the vehicle, a yellow Ford Cortina LDV and while pursuing the vehicle, they noticed a suspicious vehicle, a silver Volvo sedan, traveling on the N2 Freeway in the direction of Cape Town. The latter information was conveyed to the Western Cape Flying Squad.
Shortly thereafter the K9 members stopped the Ford Cortina in Dennehof Street and searched the vehicle. Plastic bags containing 57 sized whole crayfish, 47 undersize whole crayfish, 2 013 crayfish tails and 10 shucked abalone with an estimated value of R61 500-00 were recovered from a fridge on the back of the vehicle. Five Hawston men, aged from 21 to 30, were arrested and the vehicle was also seized.
While in another incident the Flying Squad pulled the Volvo from the road in Baden Powell Drive, Macassar and recovered 13 bags of abalone. In total 1 055 units of shucked abalone with an estimated value of R105 500 was seized, together with the vehicle, another Hawston man was arrested.
All six men are to appear in the Strand Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
