Eight accused appeared on 2 November 2022 in the Bellville Magistrates Court on preliminary charges of dealing in drugs.
The eight, David Michael Banister (52); Allister William Jackson (33); Marinus van Niekerk (31); Jacobus Hendrik Slabbert (41); Mario Mark Joseph (44); John Frederieck Roodman (47); Andre Welgemoed (44) and Anthony Trevor Tarr’s (42) was postponed to 8 November 2022 where they will be appearing in the Pretoria Magistrates court for formal bail application.
Their case is part of an ongoing investigation into the proliferation of drugs in the country.
Previously, assets including a bakkie, trailer, three boats with a combined value of more than R18,6 million together with the drugs with an estimated value of R400 million and cash seized on the N1 highway were finally forfeited to the state by the Gauteng and Western Cape High courts respectively.
The forfeiture orders execution was consequently to the arrest of Niel Pieter Van Zyl (40), on 2 June 2021 whilst driving a bakkie pulling a trailer carrying a consignment of drugs, 805 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside the hull of the ski-boat on the N1 highway in Pretoria.
Eight (8) more suspects which include Rafiek Baderoen (45), Rashied Baderoen (49), Michael Norman (39), Tenikaitis Valdas (58), Jaco de Kock (49) Izak Strbydom (46) and Hugh Stam (48) were arrested.
They were identified as the members of an international drug trafficking syndicate, allegedly involved in the smuggling cocaine between South Africa and Brazil.
They are expected to be back in court on 6 December 2022.
These arrests and seizures which dismantled an international drug cartel stems from an extensive collaborative project driven investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Israeli national, Ahmed Isa also known as Mickey, along with two Lithuanian nationals, Donates Jukna and Jonas Zulpa are still at large.
More arrests and seizures of property used in cocaine smuggling are imminent.
