The drug network which the State claims was run by alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome "Donkie" Booysen saw highly-skilled investigators being left with no option but to intercept his calls, the Western Cape High Court has heard.
This was revealed on Monday as Booysen along with several others returned to court for the murder trial of slain "steroid king" Brian Wainstein.
The case, which was last heard last year, resumed with a Hawks detective taking the stand as he outlined the steps taken by investigators to try and penetrate the drug syndicate which he says was run by Booysen and several others.
While the investigation into the alleged drug deals do not form part of the murder trial the details have formed part of a trial-within-a-trial amid contentions by Booysen’s legal team that the interception of his communications were unlawful.
In her objection lodged last year, Advocate Amanda Nel contended that the information obtained during the interception was not relevant to the murder trial but instead stemmed from an application dating back to 2014 where the Hawks obtained information about alleged drug sales.
The matter was then plunged into a trial-within-a-trial as Judge Vincent Saldanha will now have to establish if the information from the calls should be admitted into evidence in the main trial.
The former Hawks detective took the stand yesterday where he outlined several matters placed in his statement as they lodged an application to intercept the calls.
He explains that from the Section 205 application the Hawks team were able to identify Booysen and other individuals who were part of the syndicate and pinned down their locations such as Bellville, Belhar, Heideveld, Retreat and Johannesburg.
The former detective explained obtaining the calls records was a way for the investigative team to corroborate information provided by sources.
He says the physical surveillance of Booysen provided cops no clues as he never handled drug deals himself. The investigators were only able to establish that the syndicate met weekly for koekies and coffee at a bakery in Durban Road but did not know what they were discussing.
The Hawks explained that the syndicate had links to law enforcement agencies who would tip them off about planned raids and that search operations were also not an option.
The detective explained cops even considered sending a police agent to penetrate the syndicate but it was deemed too dangerous saying Booysen and his mense did not operate with anyone unknown to them and if approached by a new person they would conduct research.
He explained: "Even if the person approached them and said he was from Worcester and wanted to buy R100 000 worth of drugs, Suspect A [Booysen] would immediately question people in Worcester."
The detective says cops found that conducting a ‘buy-and-bust’ operation using a police agent was also too dangerous as if the officer was caught out he could be killed.
He added: ‘The option to use a police agent to infiltrate the syndicate was too dangerous…If someone was exposed as a police officer, he could lose his life.’
The trial continues.
