Four men were sentenced in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on Friday after they were caught with abalone worth millions of rands.
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This comes after the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation team, Crime Intelligence, as well as officials from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, arrested the suspects in Milnerton during a search and seizure operation where abalone worth R4.5 million was discovered in January.
The accused, Renaldo Marcos Mucache, 23, Boniface Albino Muchanga, 28, Joshua Daniel Chaque, 38, and Valton Beca, 26, appeared on Friday when they pleaded guilty.
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They were sentenced for multiple counts of possession of abalone, operating a fish processing establishment, and contravening the Immigration Act 13 of 2002.
They will now have to pay a fine of R300 000 or undergo 36 months of imprisonment, of which R150 000 or 18 months are suspended for five years on the condition that they will not be convicted of the same offences.
According to Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani, all four accused will serve a year and six months (18 months) of direct imprisonment should they fail to pay a fine of R150 000 each.
Also read: High speed chase through Cape Town ends in massive abalone bust
The Hawks spokesperson added that 8 893 units of shucked abalone to the value of over R4.5 million were forfeited to the State.
The sentences come in the wake of several recent abalone busts in the city.
In November, abalone with an estimated street value of R1,2 million was confiscated in the Delft police precinct.
This came a month after abalone valued at more than a quarter of a million rand was seized by members of the SAPS after a high speed chase through Cape Town in October.
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Picture: Supplied: WC Hawks
