From the Wrong Side of the Tracks...CHAPTER 22 1994

Return to East London

I was sent back to SANAB East London. Some of my old colleagues were happy to see me back, and I was happy to be back in East London. I was anxious and eager to share the new techniques I had learnt. But, as always, there were the old school detectives. Those who were not very keen on changing their ways and accept new methods of how to do an investigation. Then again, in their defence. If you have always lived, worked and stayed in the same place, I suppose change was a hell of a scary thing. I, however, did not allow their attitude to affect me.

I was now working at SANAB doing drug busts and Narcotic investigations whilst there were arrangements under way to open an organised crime intelligence office in East London. Although I worked at SANAB, I reported directly to the Organised Crime Intelligence Head Office in Pretoria. I was an Organised Crime Intelligence officer, but the SANAB Commander was not aware of it. Why ever the secrecy? I never knew. I was told to keep my status under wraps by my office in Pretoria. I complied.

Being an Organised Crime Intelligence officer helped me tremendously in making big drug busts. I managed to get large amounts of state funding (money) for undercover narcotics deals. Some funds were paid directly into the dealers’ accounts for drugs to be bought during the process of planning a drug bust. This was done despite knowing that there was a chance the money could be lost. However, with the new methods, it was the way to handle it. It was frowned upon by the Commander at SANAB, as this had never been done and was never allowed in the past. But it was all approved by my office in Pretoria, so there was nothing he could do.

The Pretoria office gave me instructions to identify members for the new intelligence office in East London. Following my instructions, I identified various members. They were all members I had known for many years and had worked with in years gone by. They were all detectives that excelled in their different units.

One of the guys I identified used to be a narcotics dog handler that worked with his narcotic dog in conjunction with SANAB for several years. He later became a permanent member of SANAB. His results in Dagga seizures and arrests he had made spoke for itself. In ten years, he seized thirty tons of dagga and made plenty of arrests. He had excellent informers, informing on private companies’ truck drivers loading dagga in the Transkei and transporting it to different regions and cities. Sometime as far as Cape Town.

The method the narcotics dog handler used was known as a controlled delivery. His informers would tell him what type of truck, how many bags of dagga it would be loaded with, as well as the destination of each truck. Acting upon this information, he would then make contact with the Narcotics unit at that destination where the dagga bags were to be offloaded. He used to follow the truck, keeping it under observation all the way to its destination, up to the location where the bags were off-loaded. Where the bags were to be off-loaded, an ambush was set up in advance. It resulted in the dealers and truck drivers being arrested. Once, because of his work, thirty tons of dagga were confiscated. It was a record amongst the Narcotics dog units that, to this day, as far as I know, has never been broken.

The other member I identified was a detective and also a friend of mine. He worked at the Vehicle theft unit in East London. He was a very skilled detective and had a lot of informers and knew the Vehicle Theft syndicates in the Transkei extremely well.

I also identified my partner that had worked with me for many years at SANAB in East London. I knew him well. His vast knowledge in the narcotic field was impressive.