A caretaker has been fingered as the man responsible for selling cough syrup to school laaities so they can get high, after he was caught with a box of Stilpane syrup buried in his backyard.
A large contingent of cops swooped on the 62-year-old man on Saturday night as they raided his home in Perth Road, after receiving a tip-off that the man who works at Grassy Park High School had boxes of the syrup.
This follows investigations into the sale of the cough syrup, which contains codeine, to schoolchildren, who mix it with fizzy
cooldrinks to make a concoction called “Lean”.
In recent weeks, cops discovered that the intoxicating concoction, which is sold for R30 a bottle, is being used as a date rape drug on girls, who are attacked after they pass out.
Station commander Colonel Dawood Laing says they pounced on the oupa shortly after 10pm.
“We received a tip-off that the suspect, who is a caretaker at Grassy Park High School, had the syrup at his home and was distributing it.
“During the search of his home, we got another tip-off that the boxes were buried in his yard.
‘We found a drain cover with a metal plate and when we lifted it, we found there was a dark hole underground. An officer had to be lowered into the hole to retrieve the boxes.”
DARK HOLE: Under drain
Laing says they found two boxes, one of which was empty, and a packet of dagga in the hole. “The other box was sealed and contained 24 100ml bottles of Stilpane,” he said.
“He has denied it belonged to him, but he has been fingered as the suspected mert.
“We have had searches at that school and every time we skud the laaities, we find nothing, but the Lean problem is big at that school. So now that the caretaker of that same school has been found with the syrup, we believe we have made a breakthrough.”
When questioned, the man refused to cough up any information about where he got the syrup, and asked cops to let him put on his blue overalls before placing him in
custody.
The caretaker will appear at the Wynberg Magistrate's Court today, where he faces various charges, including the illegal possession of pharmaceuticals.
This comes just two weeks after brothers Kiyaam and Muneeb Basardien were arrested with a stash of syrup worth over R7 000.
They were later released on R1 000 bail.