Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jan 2001
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2001 BBC
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SA DRUGS POLICE SEIZE TEDDY BEARS

South African police have seized a shipment of Chinese teddy bears 
which were being used to smuggle an illegal drug. The bears were 
stuffed with a million tablets of mandrax - one of South Africa's 
most popular narcotics - with a street value of about 40 million rand 
($5m).

Mandrax Street names: buttons, knopies, mandies, barry whites, pille, 
MX, originals Types: germans, lizards, bandits, blou bulle, 
golfsticks, beiruts, wagon wheels, flamingos, drunken monkey

Police raided a warehouse in the east coast port of Durban, where 
they discovered the teddies packed in cardboard boxes.

But the soft toys were full of hard drugs - the tablets were tightly 
wrapped and packed into the bellies of the bears.

They are believed to have been shipped in from China, and to have 
been destined for local drugs barons.

Detained

Four adult men and a 14-year-old boy were detained for questioning.

The white tablets are usually crushed and smoked

South African Broadcasting Corporation said the drugs haul was the 
biggest ever in KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Mandrax, a synthetic depressant, is popular in South Africa thanks to 
its relatively cheap street price.

Containing the psychoactive ingredient methaqualone, mandrax in South 
Africa usually takes the form of white tablets.

These tablets are often crushed and smoked in a broken bottle neck, 
sometimes in combination with marijuana.

Big business

Since the opening up of South Africa's borders seven years ago with 
the end of apartheid drug smuggling has become big business.

Syndicates from Nigeria, Colombia and China, and the Russian and 
Italian mafias have all moved into South Africa.

They sometimes use the country as a route to get drugs into the rest 
of the continent.
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