Cape Town - The Hawks have closed the net on an alleged syndicate, arresting eight people accused of smuggling abalone worth R37 million.
Hawks spokesperson, Zinzi Hani, said the Serious Organised Crime Investigation team in George arrested seven suspects between the ages of 45 and 65 years this week, with the charge sheet including a local company allegedly used for the operations, Kaiden Logistics CC.
Hani said the group was arrested amid a tracing operation by a multidisciplinary team led by the Hawks along with Public Order Police and the AntiGang Unit from the Overberg District.
“The seven suspects were arrested in the Cape Peninsula, Overberg and Hessequa areas.
“The criminal grouping was mainly operating in the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces.
“All seven suspects including the company will be facing charges of the transportation, illegal storage of abalone, operating an illegal fish processing establishment and for the illegal exporting of abalone.
“Furthermore, the suspects will also be charged in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act for money laundering and for managing the affairs of a criminal enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
Hani said prior to this, investigators received a tip-off about the whereabouts of the eighth suspect who lived outside of the Western Cape and traced him to his home in Britz in the North West.
“The accused, Jianxian Wu, was then transported to George to make his first appearance in the regional court on May 21 and returned to court this week joined by his co-accused.”
Hani said since the inception of the investigation in 2016, a total of 25.3 tons of abalone were seized from the suspects to the estimated value of over R37m.
“As a result of this investigation a total of 12 cases were registered with a combined total of 77 charges,” Hani said.
Wu was joined by Jerome Jacobs, Magnon Swartz, Marius Hendricks, Francois Visser, Jacob Arendse, Danny Marais and Koobadran Naidoo on Tuesday.
The matter against Naidoo, Jacobs, Swartz, Hendricks, Visser, Arendse, Marais and the company has been postponed to today for their bail applications while Wu will return to court next week.
mahira.duval@inl.co.za
Cape Argus