The Scorpions appear to have knocked over the first domino in their bid to probe the criminal networks surrounding the late Brett Kebble.
Last Friday, Directorate of Special Operations spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi announced the arrest of five people suspected of being part of an international drug syndicate. The Scorpions seized 762kg of hashish and more than a ton of compressed dagga with a street value of between R100-million and R200-million.
What the statement did not say, but the Mail & Guardian can confirm, is that the arrests flowed directly from the Kebble probe, more particularly from investigations relating to businessman Glenn Agliotti and impacting on National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Selebi has described Agliotti as his “friend, finish and klaar”, but on Thursday sought to downplay their relationship in a briefing to the M&G, attended by his deputy, Andre Pruis, and other senior officers.
Agliotti served as a “consultant” to JCI, the main company in the Kebble group. He was on the scene following the Kebble slaying on the night of September 27 last year and put a late-night call through to Selebi about the murder. Selebi and Agliotti have both said the call was an appeal from Agliotti for urgent police attention.
Agliotti’s attorney, Kim Warren, said her client was out of the country and could not be contacted for comment.
At Selebi’s briefing on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Pruis said Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy had personally assured him that the drug bust had nothing to do with Agliotti and Agliotti’s relationship with Selebi.
Selebi was at pains to stress that allegations smearing him were spread by people trying to “confuse the picture” because police were investigating them.
And he said: “I still insist that if the Scorpions come here with an investigation against me, I am not concerned. I know these hands are not dirty …
“This is happening because people are trying to avoid the inevitable; in a couple of weeks it will play out; it will be clear. I think it has to do with those who have been fed by that hand.”
It was not clear whether Selebi was referring to those who had “been fed” by Kebble.
Separately, an adviser to Selebi has suggested that the so-called smear was also driven by political forces ahead of the African National Congress’s 2007 leadership conference, but he did not specify who the commissioner’s political enemies might be.
Selebi said his relationship with Agliotti had been blown out of proportion and there was no evidence that his friend was a criminal.
Although, at this stage, no evidence has been presented implicating Agliotti in the drug haul, he is well-acquainted with Stefanos “Steven” Paparas, one of those arrested in relation to the bust. Paparas was the sixth suspect to be taken into custody, on Wednesday this week, after an initial five, including his 69-year-old father, Dimitrios, had been arrested exactly a week earlier.
The six accused appeared in the Alberton Magistrate’s Court on Thursday morning for a bail hearing. Apart from the Paparases, both from Johannesburg, the accused are Lesley Allan Curtis, a Canadian, and Christiaan Alblas, Pedro Marques and Stanley Poonin, all from Johannesburg.
Agliotti is said to be friendly with Steven Paparas and the M&G is aware that it was an examination of Agliotti’s activities and acquaintances that led the Scorpions to look at Paparas. An undercover operation to monitor Paparas, in turn led to last week’s hashish and dagga seizures at a self-storage facility in Alberton and a plot near Springs.
Paparas co-owns the plot. According to the Scorpions, “a well-equipped factory for the packaging and the concealment of drugs”, was discovered in addition to the drugs.
At Thursday’s bail hearing, there was a heavy Scorpions presence and the State was represented by Scorpions provincial head Advocate Gerrie Nel. It is a matter of record that it is Nel who is leading the broader Kebble investigation. Asked after the bail hearing whether further arrests were expected, he said: “There are other bigger role players who we are looking at further.”
At the bail hearing, one Anthony Dormehl was identified as a state witness. The M&G has independently ascertained that Dormehl was linked to Agliotti in an earlier case involving smuggled contraband.
Contraband tobacco
In January 2003, according to affidavits in the M&G’s possession, a truck belonging to Dormehl’s company was stopped by local police from Garsfontein outside Pretoria. Inside they found boxes of counterfeit cigarettes.
In a statement prepared at the time, Dormehl explained that he had been introduced to a member of the police Serious Economic Offences unit, Inspector Charles Bezuidenhout.
Dormehl said Bezuidenhout contacted him with instructions to pick up a load of 430 boxes of cigarettes that he was to store in his warehouse. Later he got instructions from Bezuidenhout to transport 200 of the boxes to Cape Town — and it was this delivery that was stopped by Garsfontein police.
At this point, it is alleged, one Paul Stemmet became involved — phoning Garsfontein police claiming Dormehl’s truck was doing a “controlled delivery” as part of an undercover police operation. Stemmet was a police reservist who conducted undercover work for the police and, at the time, had direct access to top police officers, including Selebi. He also worked for Kebble’s JCI.
Other information in the possession of the M&G suggests that Agliotti was aware of the cigarette operation and sent his own lawyers to sort out matters for Dormehl.
Bezuidenhout, who left the police shortly after this incident, at the time filed an affidavit claiming that this was indeed a bona fide undercover operation and that he had failed to complete the documentation due to the pressure of time.
Bezuidenhout also claimed that he had such experience in the investigation of smuggling that “Commissioner Selebi sends information through to me for me to follow up”. He claimed to have made use of Dormehl’s company for “controlled deliveries” as part of such undercover operations.
However, Bezuidenhout’s commanding officer, Director Jacobus Nortje, filed an affidavit in which he denied that Bezuidenhout was conducting any authorised undercover operation and stated that his unit had never made any official use of Dormehl. Nortje also stated that he had spoken to Selebi who had denied giving Bezuidenhout any direct orders to conduct operations.
At this week’s briefing, Selebi at first denied knowing who Bezuidenhout was — until his memory was refreshed by Pruis, who said that Bezuidenhout had ultimately recanted his affidavit. Selebi said people often claimed to have his authorisation or to work on his behalf, even when this was untrue. “If you say you’re instructed by the national commissioner, then you have more authority.”
Asked why Bezuidenhout, who on the face of it had tried to portray smuggling activity as a police operation, had not been prosecuted, Selebi and Pruis said that prosecuting authorities would have to account for that.
Meanwhile, the M&G has established that Steven Paparas has a historical link with another of the figures that became prominent in the last years of Kebble’s life, security company boss Clint Nassif, whose company provided JCI with investigation and protection services.
Paparas was a director of the Seabridge Group, a company that linked up with Nassif to market high-tech security equipment.
Both Nassif and Agliotti appear to have previously attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies in the course of broader investigations into contraband activities. But last week’s drug bust is the first concrete indication that Kebble’s desperation for cash to fuel his collapsing business empire and hide his massive frauds may have led him beyond the boundaries of white-collar crime — or at least into the orbit of organised criminal syndicates.
Ten months after his murder there have still been no arrests and police have maintained a stony silence on the progress and direction of the investigation.
Additional reporting by Zukile Majova