Yet another illegal alcohol manufacturing plant has been uncovered in Cape Town, this time in Khayelitsha.
On Wednesday, officers attached to the Lingelethu West SAPS were conducting Safer Festive Season operations on Spine Road in Khayelitsha, when a vehicle was stopped and searched during a roadblock. Western Cape police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg said they found boxes of alcohol.
“They stopped a silver Hyundai I20 and searched the vehicle. The members found four boxes containing Old Buck Gin in the vehicle and the occupants could not give an account for the liquor in the vehicle,” said Twigg.
The discovery prompted further investigations, which led officers to a property in Lansdowne. There, they came upon a site where the illicit alcohol was being made.
“They found an illegal alcohol manufacturing plant and manufacturing equipment, an assortment of alcohol branding stickers and unknown liquids.”
Twigg said two suspects, aged 26 and 39, were arrested and are expected to appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrates’ Court on charges of “the illegal manufacturing and distributing liquor”.
This latest case comes after police operations uncovered other illicit alcohol networks in Cape Town and surrounding areas earlier this year.
In October, six people were arrested after police found a large-scale illegal manufacturing operation spanning Faure and Woodstock. Officers seized chemicals, industrial bottling machinery, and pre-packaged counterfeit liquor, with one officer saying large volumes of “counterfeit or unregulated liquor” had been confiscated.
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That discovery followed another major bust in September, when seven Somali nationals were arrested in Klapmuts. Police found a facility stocked with ethanol, industrial containers, machines and empty bottles. All suspects were charged with contravening the Liquor Act.
Following the October discovery, Western Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, said operations of this nature would continue in earnest to clamp down on illicit alcohol manufacturing and distribution.
“These operations will be sustained in an effort to eradicate alcohol abuse which remains one of the contributing factors to serious and violent crimes, especially over weekends,” Patekile said.
