Huge abalone bust in quiet Vincent home

An ordinary suburban home in a quiet street in Vincent, East London was the scene of Cambridge police’s biggest abalone bust on Wednesday afternoon.

Officers swooped to arrest a 34-year-old Chinese national in connection with the contraband.

The seized abalone, packed into 10 black bin bags, was enough to fill a 1-ton bakkie.

Acting on intelligence, members of the East London crime intelligence unit and officers from Cambridge and Mdantsane police arrived at the home in Dorset Road where two huge freezers of abalone were found.

A number of frozen rock lobsters were also seized.

The arrested man’s mother was also at the house when police entered at about 2.30pm, but was not taken into custody.

Speaking to the Dispatch at Cambridge Police Station, police spokesperson Captain Mluleki Mbi said it was the precinct’s biggest ever abalone bust.

“We have not weighed it yet, but we estimate that there’s around 120kg here,” Mbi said.

With a street value of some R600 a kilogram, the abalone is worth about R72,000.

Mbi said the suspect was able to speak English, and would be charged with convening the Marine Living Resources Act.

The abalone size per unit ranged from medium to fairly large, and the smell emanating from the bin bags was powerful.

The arrested man, who is thickly-set, sat in the front seat of a police bakkie as officers removed the bags of abalone from the back of the vehicle.

In 2018, two Chinese nationals were caught with 1,200 abalone in a Greenfields home that was raided by the Hawks.

According to a 2018 report by wildlife trade specialists Traffic, in the past 18 years, poachers have stripped South African coastal waters of at least 96m abalone.

On average two thousand tons of abalone are bagged annually by poachers – 20 times the legal take – in an illicit industry estimated to be worth at least R900m a year.