Breaking News: (Update): Club owner still in custody
A Durban club owner and a Bulgarian national will remain behind bars, after their formal bail application was postponed with more than a week.
The Middelburg Magistrates court was under heavy police guard after information surfaced that Gregory Craig Ayres (45) and Valeri Nikolov (41) might be an escape risk.
Entrants into C-court, where the bail hearing was set to take place, were searched with metal detectors.
A trusted source said that Ayres and Nikolov were kept at the Middelburg Correctional Services, where they consulted with their advocate before being brought to court at the last minute. They were also reportedly being held in a separate cell to limit contact with other prisoners.
Since Ayres and Nikolov’s arrest at the Middelburg Toll Plaza last week Tuesday, two major drug busts have been made in Durban, where Ayres is originally from and the drugs he was found in possession of were allegedly headed to.
Gareth John Bisset (40), Sakhile Dlamini (28) and John Mupumulu (32) were arrested in a house in Westville on Wednesday morning.
They face charges of being in possession of precursor chemicals used to manufacture drugs and is set to appear in Pinetown in court again today (Friday).
It was reported that Bisset and Ayres co-owned nightclub Keys in Durban.
Police have also raided a warehouse in Stamford Hill, Durban, where they found more chemicals, money and machinery believed to have been used to manufacture drugs. The property is said to have been leased by one of the accused.
Ayres and Nikolov, who face a charge of possession of drugs for allegedly being caught in possession of 600 000 ecstasy tablets worth an estimated R85 million, had their case transferred from the district court to regional court.
