{"id":103599,"date":"2026-02-08T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=103599"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:48:08","slug":"half-a-ton-of-cocaine-vanishes-from-police-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/half-a-ton-of-cocaine-vanishes-from-police-custody\/","title":{"rendered":"Half-a-ton of cocaine vanishes from police custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n3-minute read
\n05 February 2026<\/p>\n

\"\"

Nearly R200 million worth of cocaine vanished from police custody in KZN – five years later, no arrests and no answers.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nearly R200 million worth of cocaine – a staggering 541 kilograms has disappeared from a police facility in KwaZulu-Natal almost five years ago, and no arrests have been made. The case, which should have triggered immediate internal alarms and urgent criminal investigations, has instead become a symbol of what critics describe as deep-rooted corruption and collapsing accountability in South Africa\u2019s law enforcement system.<\/p>\n

Special Investigator Mike Bolhuis says while theft from SAPS evidence storage facilities is not new, the sheer scale of this incident points to something far more sinister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shocking thing is this is clearly not alleged. This is clearly an organised crime. It\u2019s been planned, only been executed by involvement,\u201d Bolhuis said.<\/p>\n

The matter has resurfaced amid reports that the KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss is now facing possible removal a development that adds further pressure on senior officials to explain how more than half a ton of drugs could vanish under state custody with seemingly no consequences.<\/p>\n

Bolhuis described the circumstances surrounding the disappearance as \u201cmayhem,\u201d claiming the facility lacked effective security and that the investigation itself was deliberately compromised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was stolen there was no real security, cameras that didn\u2019t work. And then obviously, the investigation was stalled and hampered and just got nowhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also criticised the lack of basic accountability measures that should automatically follow when high-value contraband goes missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLifestyle audits independent oversight did any of this happen? No,\u201d Bolhuis stated.<\/p>\n

According to him, the renewed scrutiny comes after recent revelations by senior figures in KwaZulu-Natal, which he believes has \u201copened the can of worms.\u201d Bolhuis warned that what is emerging publicly is damaging trust in government and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt causes much more harm and much more distrust It\u2019s come to a point where we need a complete change in our government, complete change in our safety and security industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bolhuis further argued that honest officers within SAPS are both outnumbered and intimidated into silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not many good cops left, there\u2019s maybe 20 to 10%. And even then [they] are extremely intimidated threatened and even killed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The disappearance of the cocaine, Bolhuis believes, is unlikely to have been consumed locally and instead \u201cfell within a distribution chain somewhere,\u201d highlighting how criminal networks may be operating from within the state itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 05 February 2026 Nearly R200 million worth of cocaine – a staggering 541 kilograms has disappeared from a police facility in KwaZulu-Natal almost five years ago, and no arrests have been made. The case, which should have triggered immediate internal alarms and urgent criminal investigations, has instead become a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":103600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Missing-cocaine.jpeg?fit=245%2C206&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-qWX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 17:47:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}