Detectives from Nelspruit recover alcohol stolen from Durban harbour

NELSPRUIT – Two “Starsky and Hutch” detectives traced cargo stolen from a Durban harbour which led to a dramatic police bust in the Lowveld. The detectives from Nelspruit police station led the successful investigation in which whiskey to the value of R1,3 million was recovered and six suspects arrested.

Detective Sgt Gerrie le Grange and Sgt Michael Horn told Lowvelder how the whole investigation unfolded from the beginning.

Earlier on July 6, a cargo ship left the Netherlands heading for Durban harbour with a shipment containing 1109 cases of VAT 69 whiskey valued at R1.3 million. The final destination of the goods was for the liquor company Brand house. When the ship arrived and offloaded the containers, two of the serial numbers on the cargo were mysteriously and meticulously swapped with another two numbers.

When Brand house collected the two containers, the weight felt correct so none of the officials suspected anything. On August 19, when they finally opened the shipment, they were shocked to find 50 kilograms of cement bags inside instead.

Then on August 24, at a Machadadorp weigh bridge, a truck was stopped and found to be five tons overweight with goods. That is when police in Nelspruit were tipped off that something suspicious about the cargo and passengers was suspected.

Police under the command of Capt Pieter Smit from the White River flying squad, then orchestrated a surveillance of the truck and the suspects that night.

The police split into two teams, one watched the suspects and how they unloaded boxes of whiskey and put it into two other vehicles. The other waited at Alkmaar as they had received intelligence that the truck and two vehicles were travelling towards Nelspruit. The first team then followed them all the way to Alkmaar where the other team stopped the suspects.

The police then inspected the truck and vehicles and found it suspicious that it was only one brand of whiskey, added to that the drivers of all three vehicles could not produce invoices or tell the police where they were delivering the stock to. Six men were then arrested.

In the meantime, Le Grange and Horn tracked down clues and re-traced the truck’s movements which led them all to Pietermaritzburg. There they found the stock had been kept in two empty shops. The detectives got the CCTV footage from the street in front of the one shop and saw on this how the alleged suspects loaded the stolen alcohol onto the truck.

The detectives then realised that the whiskey was the same stock that had been stolen from the harbour.

The men the police arrested for possession of stolen property, were kept in custody until August 29, where they appeared in the Nelspruit district court.

Mr Desbele Tesfaye (32) an Ethiopian citizen and who police believed to be the mastermind behind the operation, was given R15 000 bail. Mr Bheki Khumalo(48), the only South African, Mr Ismael Mlawuza (32) from Malawi, Mr Edgar Luhana (32) Malawi, Mr Isaac Berhane (33) from Eretria and Mr Hamilton Chaisekula (31) also from Malawi were all given R5000 bail. The men are expected to appear again in court on October 18.