Three foreign nationals have been arrested, and a substantial quantity of suspected crystal meth and Mandrax was seized during an intelligence-driven anti-drug operation in Parys over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The arrests were made by members of the South African Police Service’s Welkom Anti-Gang Unit (Section C2) following information that suspects living at a property in Kort Street were allegedly involved in drug trafficking.<\/a><\/p>\n Police spokesperson Sergeant Mahlomola Kareli said officers were deployed to Parys on Friday, 24 July 2026, for crime-combating duties when they noticed suspicious activity at the residence.<\/p>\n “Following an on-site intelligence gathering, information revealed that foreign nationals residing at the premises were actively involved in drug peddling,” Kareli said.<\/p>\n Police subsequently obtained a search warrant from the Parys Magistrate’s Court and carried out a raid on the property on Saturday.<\/p>\n During the operation, officers allegedly caught a 48-year-old suspect in the act of a drug transaction.<\/p>\n “Upon arrival, operators caught a 48-year-old male red-handed in the middle of a drug transaction. He was immediately restrained, and drugs alongside cash were found in his possession,” Kareli said.<\/p>\n A search of the residence led to the arrest of a second suspect, aged 46, and the seizure of more illicit substances.<\/p>\n “Further searches of the house resulted in the recovery of additional illicit substances, a substantial quantity of Crystal Meth and Mandrax were seized,” Kareli said.<\/p>\n Follow-up investigations took police to a second property in the Mandela Section of Parys, where a 31-year-old foreign national was arrested after officers allegedly found him in possession of additional Crystal Meth and Mandrax.<\/p>\n The three suspects, aged 31, 46 and 48, remain in police custody and are expected to appear in the Parys Magistrate’s Court on charges of dealing in drugs.<\/p>\n IOL News<\/p>\n Get your news on the go. Download\u00a0the latest IOL App for\u00a0Android<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0IOS<\/a> now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three foreign nationals have been arrested, and a substantial quantity of suspected crystal meth and Mandrax was seized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[168324,2506,1694,168327,150992,168329,63329,7559,89128,128744,168325,168328,131,1689,168326],"class_list":["post-349457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-crystal-meth","tag-free-state","tag-iol-news","tag-kort-street","tag-mahlomola-kareli","tag-mandela-section","tag-mandrax","tag-nationals","tag-operation","tag-parys","tag-parys-magistrates-court","tag-section-c2","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-police-service","tag-welkom-anti-gang-unit"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116988606320748839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}