HEAVILY armed policemen guarded the Randburg Regional Court on Friday for the appearance of a former Cuban intelligence officer, 43-year-old Nelson Pablo Yester-Garrido, who was arrested on April 23 in Johannesburg.
Yester-Garrido has allegedly been a fugitive from US justice for 12 years on drug-trafficking charges. He was arrested in a luxury home in Sandhurst, Hyde Park on a five-year-old Interpol warrant.
A bail application pending an extradition inquiry will be held in the Randburg Regional Court on May 14.
The inquiry into whether Yester-Garrido would be sent to the US to stand trial is set for July 26. For security reasons he will be held in custody at the Pretoria Central prison.
According to documents before the court Yester-Garrido allegedly used 25 different names in the past years, and held a British passport in the name of Hector Santana.
He worked as a car, aircraft and motorcycle salesman, is also skilled in operating multi-engined aircraft and is qualified to fly military jets.
According to the summary of the facts of the American case, Yester-Garrido was allegedly a member ”of an organisation that supervised and controlled shipment and delivery of multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and allegedly laundered the money received from the sales”.
It is further claimed that the drug trafficking took place by means of submarine, helicopter and aircraft between South America, the United States and countries within the former Soviet Union — especially Russia.
It is alleged that in 1995 Yester-Garrido telephonically made arrangements for the drug transportation and travelled to Russia several times. – Sapa