A multi-disciplinary crime operation, including the Hawks, Crime Intelligence and Western Cape Traffic, has led to a massive cocaine bust, and the arrest of three alleged drug smugglers.

The men were bust on the N1 highway near Cape Town yesterday, with cocaine valued at over R400 million hidden in a truck.

The drugs was found hidden in false wooden boards at the back of the truck.

Hawks spokesperson, Zinzi Hani, says they received a tip-off about the truck, and the agencies pounced on the vehicle at the Engen Winelands filling station.

The three men, aged 39, 42, and 47, are expected to appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

The bust is one of the largest that police have made in the last year, following a R240-million bust in December, and a R500-million bust in July, both at the Durban harbour.

In the December raid, the Hawks found cocaine weighing more than 600kg on an MSC vessel that was sailing from South America to South Africa.

Containers aboard the vessel had wooden floorboards and cocaine was concealed in the consignment.

In July, almost 1 000 bricks of cocaine were seized at Durban harbour, inside a shipping container carrying truck parts that were destined for a South African truck sales company.