SA GRANNY 'PART OF DRUGS RING'

A 79-year-old pensioner has been arrested in South Africa on suspicion of
being a key figure in an international drug smuggling operation.

Police believe the grandmother was in charge of recruiting drug couriers -
known as mules - to smuggle blocks of cannabis into the United Kingdom.

Police raided the pensioner's Durban flat on Monday, also detaining her son.

Her neighbours watched with disbelief, as the grey-haired lady was led
away, the South African media reported.

South Africa, according to one study, is the world's fourth largest
exporter of cannabis - known in the country as dagga - and it fetches a
high price abroad.

Raid

According to the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Cape Town, most of
the cannabis seized in the UK in 2001 and 2002 came from South Africa.

In simultaneous raids, police working on Operation West also caught the
alleged kingpin of the syndicate in Johannesburg as he handed over a
consignment to an undercover policeman.

The commander of Operation West, Superintendent Willie Louw, told the Cape
Times: "One of our undercover detectives was recruited as a courier by the
woman and was booked to fly to London via Frankfurt.

"He was told to go to Johannesburg, where, yesterday, a 34-year-old man
made contact with him and handed him the 20kg parcel of compressed dagga.

Five arrests were made in total.