There were at least three big busts pertaining to illicit cigarettes this week.
Police intercepted a Volkswagen Tiguan SUV motor vehicle transporting illicit cigarettes, in the early hours of Thursday morning.
An unknown male driver abandoned the motor vehicle at the scene and fled on foot.
Upon searching the motor vehicle, police found 23 boxes of illicit cigarettes with an estimated street value of R575,000.
Police said they worked closely with a local Farm Watch initiative.
Another 49-year-old foreign national was arrested on Thursday, by the Provincial Tracking Team while transporting illicit tobacco, from Zimbabwe to Gauteng.
About 333 master boxes of Hookar Illicit cigarettes valued at R1.5 million, were found in his truck.
The Provincial Tracking Team worked with the Tshimollo Security and Investigations.
On Friday, police arrested three foreign nationals, aged 35 and 43, in Nelspruit.
They were caught with 50 master cases of illicit cigarettes valued at more than half a million rand, loaded in their Toyota Hilux.
Police said the arrests followed a lengthy surveillance operation after information was received regarding illegal activities at a storage facility in White River.
The Hawks’ Nelspruit-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation, White River K9, and Divergent Operations closely monitored vehicle movements in the area.
A further investigation with the assistance of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Customs division and the Nelspruit Local Criminal Record Centre (LCRC), led to a storage facility, where some 87 master cases and 45 cartons of illicit cigarettes were uncovered, valued at more than R1.2 million.
This brings the total value of the recovered illicit cigarettes close to R2 million.
The arrested suspects are expected to appear before the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 08 June 2026.
Picture: SAPS newsroom