Stefaans Brmmer
A close associate of Emanuel Shaw II, the controversial Liberian adviser to South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, was investigated by Dutch authorities on suspicion he participated in a crime syndicate that used West Africa as a transit point for massive drugs shipments to Europe.
Dutch investigators say they are no longer pursuing Shaw’s associate, Dutch-born Gus Kouwenhoven – known in some circles as “the Godfather of Liberia” – but others in the same circle remain in custody in Holland. They are expected to stand trial next year.
Kouwenhoven was the recipient of a letter penned by Shaw in which the Liberian politician documented a string of corrupt schemes they had pulled off together. Shaw recorded how he had helped his business partner take control of Monrovia’s biggest hotel, the Hotel Africa, and rewrote Liberia’s gambling laws to favour Kouwenhoven.
In May, members of Holland’s organised crime police and other specialised units arrested nine alleged syndicate members after more than a year’s investigation. A police statement at the time said the syndicate was suspected of having smuggled more than 100 tons of “soft drugs” – thought to be mainly Pakistani hashish and with a street value of about R1,2-billion – to Europe since 1992.
The statement said the drugs, hidden under cover of loads of frozen fish, had been transported by ship to the West African coast, where it was loaded on to other vessels destined for Europe. The syndicate was linked in a Dutch court last week to another drugs syndicate at the centre of a messy affair that led to the resignation of Holland’s justice and interior ministers four years ago.
The Dutch investigators’ interest in Kouwenhoven raises fresh questions about Shaw’s murky backgound. The Mail & Guardian reported two weeks ago that another associate of Shaw’s, Mark Wolman, is thought by South African police to have been involved in the hard drugs trade before he was brutally murdered near Cape Town a year ago.
South African-born Wolman shared oil and other business interests with Shaw in Liberia, the Dutch Antilles and elsewhere. Kouwenhoven was also a partner in some of these. Shaw’s passport was found in Wolman’s briefcase when the police discovered his body.
There is no evidence Shaw participated in or knew of the drugs operations. But again Liberia has emerged as central to a large- scale criminal operation.
Under President Samuel Doe, Liberia was cited as a money-laundering hub for the Nigerian drug trade. The country suffered an acute lack of governance during its eight years of bloody civil war, which ended when warlord Charles Taylor was elected president earlier this year.
A number of those arrested in Holland had extensive Liberian links. They include Paul Romijn, who had business relations with Kouwenhoven in Hotel Africa and logging operations; Andr Blonk, who earlier worked at the same hotel; and Peter Siebok, who was later released.
During the war Siebok, Romijn and Blonk operated fishing boats from Liberia, while Blonk also mined gold in a Taylor- controlled area. Both Shaw and Kouwenhoven are close to Taylor: Shaw is Taylor’s “ambassador extraordinaire” and both travelled with Taylor to Paris last month.