Thieves steal $13m worth of cocaine from custody of police

Thieves have stolen 541 kilogrammes of cocaine worth around $13 million from the police in South Africa.

The drugs were held inside the office of the Hawks special unit in the town of Port Shepstone in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend, the police announced on Tuesday.

The thieves entered the building through a window and then managed to break into the reinforced cabinets where the seized drugs were being stored.

South Africa plays an important role as a transit country for the illegal trade in Latin American cocaine, especially for onward transport towards Australia, Europe, and Hong Kong.