The Hawks are offering a substantial reward for info leading to the arrest of the alleged mastermind of one of the biggest suspected abalone-smuggling syndicates.
|||Cape Town - The alleged mastermind of one of the biggest suspected abalone-smuggling syndicates in South Africa, who has evaded Interpol and the Hawks for more than a year, has reportedly been spotted in Cape Town.
The Hawks are offering a substantial reward for information leading to the arrest of 47-year-old Chinese Ran Wei, and have called on their informers and the general public to be on the lookout for him, and alert them to his whereabouts.
Details of Wei, who is wanted for abalone-related racketeering, have also been circulated worldwide by both the Hawks and Interpol.
Now a
source who knows Wei, and works for some of his associates locally, says he saw him in Sea Point about three weeks ago.
The source said he heard that Wei flew to Joburg on Wednesday, but was to return to Cape Town on Friday.
A Hawks investigator, who cannot be named in terms of police protocol, said: “The reward is substantial. Let’s just say, whoever informs us where he is will have a great Christmas.”
However, while Wei remains at large, 24 members of the suspected abalone-smuggling syndicate, including alleged leader Frank Barends of Gansbaai, appeared in the Western Cape High Court on Friday for a pre-trial conference in connection with 534 charges, including corruption and racketeering.
It is alleged that the syndicate made R2 billion over a period of 13 years, from 1998, operating in the Western Cape, Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and the North West province.
At least 34 State witnesses are expected to testify in what will be a marathon trial, set to start in April and continue for several years.
Most of the accused were arrested in July last year, but Wei eluded capture at the time.
Two of the alleged syndicate members – Barends and another alleged leader, Donovan Dickson – are in custody. The others are out on bail.
The accused will be back in court on November 12.
Meanwhile, Weekend Argus understands that a reliable source has told the Hawks that Wei fled South Africa for the southern coastal Chinese city of Macau, a gambling haven that rivals Las Vegas.
The Hawks investigator said he believes it’s highly unlikely that Wei is in SA, saying that would be an “extremely high risk” for him because “there’s a good chance he will be caught if he’s in South Africa”.
Hawks spokesman Paul Ramaloko said: “We don’t want to say whether he’s inside or outside the country. We are following positive leads, and believe the information we have will lead to his capture. However, if there is any person that can help us catch him, they are asked to please contact us.”
Weekend Argus has established from its source and from the Hawks that Wei, known by his nickname “Uncle Bennie” and also known as “Peter” in some circles, is about 1.62m tall, and wears specially-made shoes to make him appear taller. He has become a familiar face in various Chinese restaurants in Sea Point over the years, also spending a lot of time in Midrand in Joburg, where he owned a home, and in Rosettenville and Randburg.
The Weekend Argus source said Wei was “well-known in Chinese mafia circles as a doer, and not a speaker”.
“He’s the king of the abalone trade, and is considered a top-class economist. He’s a master of disguise and you can pass him in the street without knowing it’s him, thinking it’s another Chinaman, not the notorious Uncle Bennie,” he said.
The State alleges that Wei “is the main figure in the criminal enterprise involved in the illegal poaching, purchasing, processing and selling of abalone”.
Wei was found guilty of possession of abalone in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in Joburg in 2006, and fined.
Details of Wei’s involvement in the trade emerge in various court papers detailing successful applications by the State to have the assets of suspected local syndicate leaders and members frozen.
Allegations against Wei include that he:
* Ordered and paid for three abalone drying facilities or processing plants, one in Boegoeberg in Groblershoop, in the Northern Cape.
* Bought the abalone the syndicate poached, then prepared it for export in its dry form, shrunk to a tenth of its original size and weight. For example, a ton of wet abalone converted into 100kg of dried abalone.
* Employed and spent time in the company of a State witness, Jan de Waal, who managed his processing facility in Groblershoop on his behalf for several years. Barends allegedly told De Waal the reason why they had to build processing plants so far away was because “the Chinese had been caught at their present processing facilities and were looking for suitable alternatives”.
* Gave De Waal cash to buy smallholdings for the establishment of two more processing plants.
* Told De Waal to get some of the cash for the purchase of the smallholdings from Barends, claiming Barends owed him money.
* Paid police officers at the Beaufort West police station at various times between 2006 and 2010 to ensure that the alleged syndicate’s abalone-heavy vehicles were not searched as they drove through the area.
* Was due to receive 3 936 shucked abalone from a Mercedes Benz and trailer allegedly belonging to Barends in July 2005.
But police bust alleged members of Wei’s enterprise on the N9 near Uniondale and confiscated all the abalone, thwarting the planned drop-off at Wei’s premises in Joburg.
henriette.geldenhuys@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus