A couple convicted on manufacturing and dealing in synthetic drugs has been jailed for an effective 15 years.

“This is indeed a welcomed precedent set by our courts and this will help our efforts to combat drug trafficking a great deal‚” National Police Commissioner‚ General Riah Phiyega‚ said in a statement welcoming the sentence.

“We are proud of our team’s efforts in ensuring a successful prosecution in this matter.

“From now on‚ dealers in synthetic drugs will feel the full might of the law‚” Phiyega said.

Collins Vwakaneme‚ a Nigerian national aged 37‚ and his 32-year-old South African wife‚ Veliswa‚ were arrested in Durban in July 2013 and synthetic drugs to the value of approximately R4 million were seized.

They were convicted under a contravention of the Medicine Control Act and money laundering in the Durban Regional Court.

The SAPS said they had been “manufacturing and dealing in synthetic drugs‚ which are basically designer drugs”.

“In 2013‚ the detection of their clandestine laboratory where synthetic narcotics substances were being manufactured was a first for this country and it attracted huge attention from the international community”.

To manufacture these drugs‚ legal chemicals are combined to replace ecstasy‚ cocaine‚ heroin‚ methamphetamine and cannabis.

Commonly called ‘legal highs’ or ‘bath salts’ on the streets‚ police said these had “a more potent and perhaps even deadly effect on the user”.

These synthetic drugs have created a major challenge for law-enforcement agencies in many countries because the chemicals that are used‚ are in the Medicine Control Act.

“For this reason‚ our courts were compelled to hand down lighter sentences. However‚ since the amendment of the Drug Act‚ this is the first time that a sentence of this nature has been handed down on the accused in South African courts.”