14 arrested as police uncover 5-hectare dagga farm disguised as vegetable plot
An intelligence-led police operation uncovered about five hectares of dagga disguised as a vegetable farm at Springfield in the Babanango policing precinct. Fourteen suspects, ten of them foreign nationals, were arrested with SANDF uniform pieces, machetes and processed cannabis.
🇿🇦 Springfield, Babanango, KwaZulu-Natal · South Africa
A multidisciplinary intelligence-driven operation in the early hours of Wednesday 16 July 2025 uncovered about five hectares of dagga plantation disguised as a vegetable farm at Springfield in the Babanango policing precinct.[1]Officers from the Zululand District, the Vryheid and Ulundi K9 units, Vryheid Search and Rescue, Home Affairs immigration officers, the Zone 3 Task Team and the Ulundi municipality took part after intelligence pointed to the site.[1]
Fourteen suspects aged between 19 and 40, ten of them foreign nationals, were arrested and were to appear in the Babanango Magistrate’s Court.[1]Officers also recovered pieces of South African National Defence Force uniform, machetes and processed cannabis from the suspects.[1]Police estimated the recovered dagga to be worth hundreds of thousands of rand.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Crime Intelligence and Paarl police raided a house in Lemoenkloof on 27 October, finding a cannabis cultivation lab with plants, products, magic mushrooms and growing equipment. Two men and a woman were arrested for dealing and were due in court on 29 October.
Police Anti-Gang Unit officers raided a Rastafarian home in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain, on 10 October 2026, arresting one person and seizing dagga. The family alleges warrantless entry, theft of R2,500 rent money and a forced cannabis gummy, and SAPS has opened a criminal case against its own members over the cash-theft claim.
JMPD raided a hijacked house in Houghton, Johannesburg used as a drug packaging hub and arrested eight suspects. Officers seized processed dagga valued at about R2 million, allegedly bound for Bulawayo, plus codeine cough syrup.
Police searching a small holding in Vyfhoek, Potchefstroom, found a hydroponic dagga laboratory with dagga and plants they valued at R10 million, plus rifles and homemade explosives, and arrested a 29-year-old man. He appeared in the Potchefstroom Magistrate's Court on 19 November 2024 on dagga and firearms charges and was remanded in custody.
