Two arrested with 31 bankies of dagga and mandrax at a Dysselsdorp house
Western Cape police searching a house on Belelie Street in Dysselsdorp on 13 September 2024 arrested two occupants, aged 33 and 57, and seized 31 bankies of dagga, 12 mandrax tablets and five crates of beer. The pair face charges of dealing in drugs and dealing in liquor without a licence and were to appear in the Oudtshoorn Magistrate's Court.
🇿🇦 Dysselsdorp, Oudtshoorn, Western Cape · South Africa
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Oudtshoorn Crime Prevention Unit, South African Police Service
Police in Dysselsdorp, outside Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape, arrested two
people, aged 33 and 57, during a search of a house on Belelie Street on Friday
13 September 2024.[1]Officers at the house seized 12 mandrax tablets, 31
bankies of dagga and five beer crates of 750 ml bottles.[1]A bankie is a
small plastic packet in which dagga is commonly sold in South Africa, and the
reports give no weight for the dagga.[2]
The two were charged with dealing in drugs and with dealing in liquor without a
licence.[1]The search was part of a wider clamp-down on unregistered liquor
outlets in the Garden Route District on that day.[1]Police said those
arrested would appear in the Oudtshoorn Magistrate’s Court once charged.[1]Sergeant Christopher Spies, a police spokesperson, gave the account of the
Dysselsdorp search and arrests.[1]
The same day’s clamp-down also produced arrests at a house in Bontebok Avenue,
Bridgeton, and one in Thabo Mbeki Square, Bongulethu, on liquor charges only.[3]
Police described the operation as part of their effort to eradicate substance
abuse in vulnerable communities of the Western Cape.[3]
Photos and video
Police display the 12 mandrax tablets, the packets of dagga and the beer crates seized at the Dysselsdorp house during the Garden Route clamp-down. Photo: SAPSPhoto details
No weight is given for the 31 bankies of dagga, so the report records no kilogram figure.
The mandrax tablets are a non-cannabis substance and are not counted in any cannabis figure.
No street value for the dagga was published.
Apart from the expected appearance in the Oudtshoorn Magistrate's Court, no bail decision or court outcome was reported.
The accounts reproduce the same SAPS media statement published by IOL, Truck and Freight and Cape Town ETC; no independent reporting was found.
The only photo published with the report is a SAPS-supplied police display of the drugs and beer, with no caption confirming which of the three addresses it was taken at.
The SAPS statement also reported a separate 12 September 2024 search of a Cape Town-bound bus at Beaufort West in which 100 kilograms of dagga worth an estimated R200,000 was found; that is a different event, left out here.
Police stopped a red SUV on the R81 road at Ximuwini near Malamulele and found 14 plastic refuse bags of dagga, which Limpopo police valued at an estimated R662,400. The 55-year-old driver was detained at Malamulele Police Station and was due in the Malamulele Magistrate's Court on 9 November on a charge of dealing in dagga.
Police and private security arrested a driver after a high-speed chase from Sinoville to Bon Accord in Pretoria on 7 November 2026. Officers seized 240kg of dagga with an estimated street value of R960,000 from the vehicle and confiscated the vehicle.
Mpumalanga police stopped a 39-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal in a white Nissan NP200 at Mahamba before dawn on 3 November 2026 and found 30 rolls holding 158.2 kg of compressed dagga, which they valued at R1 million. He was charged with dealing in dagga and was expected in the Mkhondo Magistrate's Court on 5 November.
Acting on a tip-off, North West police stopped 21-year-old Lusanda Nhlangothi on the N12 near Christiana and found 4.654 kg of compressed dagga packed in two 20-litre drums. He was charged, appeared in court on 29 October and was remanded until a 5 November bail hearing.
