South African customs officers have seized 23 kilograms of drugs, worth almost $2 million (37 million rand) hidden in works of art at OR Tambo International Airport in the country's Johannesburg city, South African Revenue Service reported.
"The Customs officers were doing their inspection rounds when they came across a box headed for New Zealand. The box contained items of moulded artwork, which looked suspicious," the service said in a statement.
Some items in the box tested positive for crystal meth, which weighed 10 kilograms, while other objects contained fentanyl, which weighed 13 kilograms, the service revealed, adding that the drugs "were handed over to the [South African Police Service] SAPS for further investigation."
South Africa is facing an alarming upsurge in the trafficking of hard drugs, in particular cocaine and heroin, involving very active local and international criminal networks, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) recently highlighted in a report.
In late November, over 8 kilograms of "date rape" drug rohypnol, concealed in a fish consignment, were detected in OR Tambo International Airport's cargo terminal in a flight from Nigeria.
Last October, thanks to three separate police interventions, cocaine worth more than $11 million (200 million rand) were discovered in the country's provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.