WATCH: Drug dealers with cops on their payroll

Journalist Paul McNally reports West Johannesburg drug dealers have weaned police officers onto their payroll with (regular) payments of as little as R50.

"By doing that they basically buy police officers over a long-term basis."

WATCH: Crooked cops and drug dens in West Johannesburg

McNally is the author of the non-fiction work The Street which exposes a network of cops, bribes and drug dealers in West Johannesburg police stations.

When it comes to bribes, he explains, "The idea from the drug dealers perspective is that they don't want to say no to the police officers."

McNally also claims police officers close to certain drug lords intentionally destroyed evidence when arriving on crime scenes which implicated their criminal associates.

"Some police stations are so badly infested with this problem that work is just not being done in those areas," he adds.

Story of a young drug dealer turned dead man

He writes that station commanders at Sophiatown, Brixton, Fairlands and Floria police stations refused interviews.

So too did the acting head for corporate communication for the police. "These parties were offered right of reply when allegations concerned them."

News24 also approached Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, Gauteng police spokesperson, but had received no reply at the time of publishing.

Watch for more.