The Hawks have closed the net on an alleged abalone syndicate arresting eight people across the Western Cape accused of smuggling perly worth over R37 million.
Hawks spokesperson, Warrant Officer Zinzi Hani, says the Serious Organized Crime Investigation team in George arrested seven suspects between the ages of 45 and 65 years old and the charge sheet includes a local company used for the operations, Kaiden Logistics CC.
“The seven suspects were arrested in the Cape Peninsula, Overberg and Hassequa areas. The criminal grouping was mainly operating in the Western Cape and Gauteng Provinces.
“All seven suspects including the company will be facing charges of the transportation, illegal storage of abalone, operating an illegal fish processing establishment and for the illegal exporting of abalone.
“Furthermore, the suspects will also be charged in terms of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act for money laundering and for managing the affairs of a criminal enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
Hani says investigators received a tip-off about the whereabouts of the eighth suspect and traced him to his home in Britz in the North West.
“The accused, Jianxian Wu, was then transported to George to make his first appearance at the George Regional Court on 21 May and returned to court this week joined by his co accused.”
Hani says the inception of the investigation in 2016 a total of 25.3 tonnes of abalone were seized from the suspects. worth over R37 million.
“As a result of this investigation a total of 12 cases were registered with a combined total of 77 charges,” she says.
On Tuesday, Wu was joined by Jerome Jacobs, Magnon Swartz, Marius Robyn Hendricks, Francois Visser, Jacob Arendse, Danny Ralph Marais, and Koobadran Naidoo in the dock.
The matter against the seven was postponed to Friday for bail while Wu will return to court next week.