A group of sailors and fishermen, who helped traffic cocaine worth more than R400 million into the Mother City for cartels from Brazil, will be sent to Pretoria Central Magistrate’s Court to face the music alongside their co-accused.
Nearly a year after the Hawks pounced on a group of Capetonians and Lithuanian nationals accused of smokkeling and stockpiling the drugs in South Africa for further distribution, they have now busted eight more men who did the cartel’s vuil werk at sea.
According to a Daily Voice source, the eight are known sailors and fishermen from Somerset West who transported the drugs on a yacht, a rubber duck and other vessels, and often spent up to five weeks at sea waiting for their shipment.
“They did all the transporting to get the cocaine into Cape Town,” says the source.
“They would sail out at night onto the Atlantic Ocean and wait for the vessels from Brazil and would sometimes wait for the shipment for up to five weeks at sea.
“They used satellite phones and were responsible for fetching the cocaine and hiding it in the vessels.”
The major bust, which saw the Hawks partner with the Australian federal police and the FBI, first resulted in the arrest of Niel Pieter van Zyl, 40, on June 2, 2021 while he was pulling a trailer carrying a consignment of drugs.
Cops found 805kg of cocaine hidden inside the hull of the ski-boat on the N1 in Pretoria.
The team then came to Somerset West where they busted brothers Rafiek and Rashied Baderoen along with Michael Norman, Tenikaitis Valdas, Jaco de Kock, Izak Strydom and Hugh Stam.
Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale says they were identified as members of an international drug trafficking syndicate, allegedly involved in the smuggling of cocaine between SA and Brazil.
Their bail application was denied in Pretoria and they will return to court next month.
Mogale says that on Monday morning, the Hawks also arrested David Michael Banister, Allister William Jackson, Marinus van Niekerk, Jacobus Hendrik Slabbert, Mario Mark Joseph, John Frederieck Roodman, Andre Welgemoed and Anthony Trevor Tarr.
During their first appearance at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court yesterday, the majority of the suspects were represented by advocate Reuben Lidell, who explained that they would be moved to Pretoria this week where the State had agreed not to oppose their bail application at their next appearance on November 8.
Meanwhile, the Hawks are still on the hunt for Israeli fugitive Ahmed Isa, aka Mickey, along with two Lithuanian nationals Donates Jukna and Jonas Zulpa.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za