Tessa Beegte, a KwaZulu-Natal woman serving an eight-year jail sentence in Brazil for drug trafficking, did not look surprised when drugs were found in her luggage, the Pietermaritzburg High Court heard on Monday.
“She did not look surprised when she was caught,” Carlos de Bartole, an agent of the Brazilian Federal Police, told the court.
De Bartole was one of the three Brazilians who arrived at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday morning to testify in the drug trafficking case involving Sheryl Cwele, the wife of security minister, Siyabonga Cwele.
Bartole arrested Beetge for possession of cocaine in Brazil in June 13 2008. Ten kilograms of raw cocaine was found in her luggage.
The State alleges she was recruited by Cwele (Sheryl) and Nigerian national Frank Nabolisa as a drug mule.
Cwele and Nabolisa also allegedly conspired to recruit Charmaine Moss as a drug mule. Moss allegedly turned down the offer when she suspected something was amiss.
‘Something organic’
Describing how Beegte was nabbed in Sao Paulo International Airport, De Bartole said he was working at the luggage section when her luggage caught his attention.
“When I passed it through the X ray I noticed that there was something organic inside. The luggage had a name, Tessa Beegte, on it,” he said.
Beegte was about to board the plane when she was apprehended and she was taken a certain place where her locked suit case was opened in front of her.
“Inside the big suitcase there was another bag which did not have clothing. That bag was heavy. The bag was full of white powder which was found to be cocaine,” he said.
The substance was wrapped with carbon paper, he said.
There were also four coffee bags and two packets of sweets inside the big bag which were also full of cocaine, said De Bartole.
En route to Johannesburg
He said according to the information on the suitcase, Beegte was allegedly from Peru and on her way to Johannesburg.
De Bartole said Beegte had admitted that the luggage belonged to her. When Cwele’s advocate Mvuseni Ngubane asked him if he was present during Beegte’s trial, De Bartole said he did not attend the trial.
He also did not know if Beegte pleaded guilty or not.
Earlier, Carolina Passato Braga, a chemical expert with the Brazilian federal police, described how the substance found in Beegte’s luggage was tested.
She said officials at the Sao Paulo International Airport had conducted preliminary tests of the substance.
Slow proceedings
Denison Maia, another Brazilian chemical expert, was also expected to testify on Tuesday.
The court proceedings were excruciatingly slow as testimony had to be translated into English, isiZulu, Portuguese and Igbo (a Nigerian language).
The interpreter who translated Portuguese to English struggled to convey some of the thoughts.
Unlike previous days when he smiled a lot, Nabolisa on Monday looked serious during the court proceedings. Cwele is out on R100 000 bail.
Nabolisa was refused bail because he was considered to be a flight risk. — Sapa