Man denies role in R200 million cocaine theft from KwaZulu-Natal Hawks facility
A 49-year-old man accused of stealing 541 kilograms of cocaine from a Hawks facility in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, has denied any role in the heist.
A 49-year-old man accused of stealing 541 kilograms of cocaine from a Hawks facility in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, has denied any role in the heist. Lucas Legabe appeared in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court on Friday for a formal bail application.
The drugs, valued at an estimated R200 million, went missing in November 2021, but the case has only now reached the bail stage after a lengthy investigation. Legabe was arrested last month in Pretoria.
Bail bid under way
Legabe faces charges of housebreaking and theft, along with an additional drug-dealing charge. His affidavit was read in court by his lawyer, Hendrik Potgieter, who told the magistrate that his client says he was tortured and forced to confess.
That claim puts a fresh spotlight on a case already tangled in wider questions about policing and drug crime in South Africa’s eastern coastal province. The disappearance of the cocaine has also come under scrutiny at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. Heavy stuff. For the Hawks, and for the state.
What the case involves
The cocaine was reportedly seized before it vanished from storage at a Hawks facility, raising awkward questions about how evidence was handled after the original bust. The scale of the loss is large even by international standards. In South Africa, the case has echoed beyond one courtroom because it touches both narcotics trafficking and alleged failures inside law-enforcement structures.
Legabe’s arrest in Pretoria last month followed what officials have described as a lengthy probe. He is now trying to secure bail while denying involvement in the theft. The court has not yet ruled on that application.
Wider scrutiny
The disappearance of the cocaine has already drawn the attention of the Madlanga Commission, which has heard testimony related to the missing drugs. Earlier evidence before the commission indicated that police members were complicit in drug dealing in KwaZulu-Natal, and that some officers faced polygraph testing over the theft even though they had not worked at the Port Shepstone Hawks office.
Those hearings have widened the significance of the Port Shepstone case. What began as a missing-drugs investigation now sits inside a broader debate about corruption, internal controls and trust in elite crime-fighting units.
Potgieter told the court his client alleges he was tortured and forced to confess.
