Johannesburg - A fourth police official was arrested for charges related to drug trafficking, local media reported Tuesday.

Earlier, police said the head of an organized crime unit and two of his subordinates were arrested on charges of theft, fraud and racketeering.

"They would take some of the consignment [of seized drugs] from the scene of the crime and sell it to drug lords," SAPA news agency quoted a spokeswoman for crime intelligence, Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding, as saying.

The four police officers, including a senior superintendent, had allegedly been stealing from drugs which were seized at Johannesurg's international airport.

Golding said the officers had been under investigation by crime intelligence in Pretoria since 2007.

The four defendants were scheduled to appear at a Pretoria on Tuesday, the report said.

Golding called their arrest a victory against crime. Corrupt police officers would be "hunted down," because they betrayed those they had sworn to protect, she said.

"We will root them out. We are not ashamed to name our own," she said. (dpa)