Trio arrested for smuggling almost 500,000 cigarettes into SA

Three men have been arrested in northern KwaZulu-Natal after they were found transporting 20,095 packs of cigarettes from Mozambique on Thursday.

Each pack contains 20 cigarettes, equating to 401,900 cigarettes in total.

Pierre Conradie of Alpha Security said the men came through the Kosi Bay border post and  drove through on a district road in the Phinda Private Game Reserve, near Hluhluwe.

“I was with Brett Pearson of the Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit when one of their gate guards based at Phina radioed in to say that three suspicious vehicles had entered the reserve,” he told TimesLIVE.

Conradie said they managed to intercept one of the vehicles.

“After we stopped the one vehicle we waited for the other two vehicles to arrive and pulled them over,” he said.

He said thousands of boxes of what they believed were fake cigarettes were found in the three vehicles.

“They told us they were heading to the KwaDukuza area. Two of the men were South Africans and the other was a Mozambican national.”

Police were called in and arrested the men.

A police officer close to the investigation said the men were facing charges of being in possession of illicit goods, trespassing and contravention of the Immigration Act.

“The members from the counterfeit unit will come on Friday to establish whether the cigarettes are fake or not,” he told TimesLIVE.

Police have been approached for official comment.