7 held over fake washing powder

Sars officials and Joburg police cleaned up a dirty operation in Doornfontein on Wednesday night, seizing about R300 000 in fake soap powder. At the run-down warehouse, officials found green canvas bags of soap powder labelled “Neutralizer – wash car” being emptied out, weighed and repackaged as Omo and Sunlight soap. Effectively, soap for washing cars was apparently being sold as laundry soap.Soap powder covered the floor.A pile of empty green canvas bags showed how much counterfeit soap powder had been processed through the operation. Heavy canvas bags, stamped with English and Oriental writing, held the brightly coloured brand-new plastic Omo and Sunlight packets, ready for filling. The Omo and Sunlight packets had English, French and Portuguese details on them, and expiry dates of 2016. A customs official, who did not wish to be named, said they had received a tip-off from someone who had seen a truck leaving the premises. Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini of the Gauteng SAPS said seven people who were working on the repackaging were taken in for questioning. He said six were Malawian and one was Zimbabwean. “They’ve got asylum papers, but we are still going to check the papers to see if they are genuine,” said Dlamini. “They said that they’ve been in this place for about three months.” He estimated the value of the soap, scales and bag-sealing machines seized at about R300 000.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/7-held-over-fake-washing-powder-1.1482388#.UTiqOhy1chE