SEVEN people have been taken into police custody and face charges of the manufacture of and dealing in heroin and mandrax as well as in terms of the Medicine Control Act.
This comes after a multi-disciplinary task team uncovered a massive clandestine drug laboratory in Springfield Park on Friday afternoon.
Members of the Provincial Organised Crime Unit and the Ethekwini Inner South Cluster’s Provincial Drug and Firearm Unit swooped on the laboratory where they arrested two men and two women.
The four were allegedly working on a machine producing capsules suspected to contain heroin.
A search was conducted on the premises which led to the discovery of thousands of kilograms of methaqualone powder which is generally used to produce mandrax tablets.
The team further discovered one tablet press machine (suspected to be used for mandrax tablets), over 60 dyes, approximately 10 000 mandrax tablets and approximately 40 000 empty capsules, all with an estimated value of over R50 million.
The initial arrests led police members to a house in Shepstone Place in Westville where they recovered approximately 20 kilograms of methaqualone powder and arrested three more suspects on the premises.