An attempt by Zimbabwean cigarette smugglers to beat South Africa’s eyes and ears on the country’s borders by using a covered eight ton truck to hide the illegal tobacco product was not enough to distract 4 Artillery Regiment gunners currently deployed on the Limpopo/Zimbabwe border.
Gunners on duty at the Grobler’s Bridge port of entry stopped the Hino truck and found close to R2 million worth of illicit cigarettes in the covered load bay. The driver was handed to police. The truck is valued at R380 000, according to Captain Moses Semono.
In another 4 Artillery Regiment area of operations on the same borderline, soldiers working with Mapungubwe National Park rangers confiscated R265 000 worth of illegal cigarettes. Not far from the park at Dongola Kop, soldiers struck again, taking R140 000 plus worth of illegal cigarettes from smugglers.
A fourth cigarette bust by the Potchefstroom-based unit saw a boat, used to move illegal goods across the Limpopo River, confiscated along with cigarettes valued at R420 000.
Gunners from the same regiment posted at the Beitbridge port of entry apprehended 177 illegal immigrants who were handed to police and Department of Home Affairs officials. A further addition to the Beitbridge scorecard was finding and confiscating 73 small bottles of King Stallion branded brandy, conservatively worth R1 800.
4 Artillery Officer Commanding, Lieutenant Colonel H Abrahams, brought congratulations for work well done to his soldiers from Colonel Samuel Mabotja, OC Joint Tactical Headquarters, Limpopo.
