Cops held for allowing drug dealers safe passage

SEVEN Queenstown Flying Squad members were arrested yesterday for allegedly being paid off to allow drug dealers safe passage through the town.

The officers were arrested after a months-long sting operation by the Eastern Cape Anti-Corruption Unit.

They are expected to appear in court either today or tomorrow.

In the Free State, six police officers were arrested yesterday for fraud, corruption and theft in another sting operation.

The charges relate to bogus claims totalling R5.2-million.

Eastern Cape provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga’s office said more information on the Queenstown arrests would only be made available after the officers had been formally charged in court.

Six of the officers were arrested at their homes at about 5am and the seventh was arrested in Pretoria where he is on a training course.

The officers – from constables to warrant officers – are accused of being paid by drug dealers to allow certain dealers safe passage through the town.

“In some instances, they allegedly transported narcotics through the town for the drug dealers to a drop-off point,” an official, who is close to the investigation but declined to be named, said.

“Preliminary investigations suggest they were paid between R1 000 and R2 000 a trip to allow the dealers to pass through.”

Sources close to the probe said in one case an officer was allegedly paid to be a drug mule – collecting and transporting the drugs to a specific location in the town.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci also said they would only comment once the officers had been charged in the Queenstown Magistrate’s Court.

The arrested Free State police members are expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court today.

They include two lieutenantcolonels, working at different divisions, three constables attached to the tactical response team and a finance admin clerk.

Free State Hawks spokesman Captain Philani Nkwalase said more arrests were expected.

He said the investigation started in September after it was established that some units’ budgets were depleted and more than R5.2-million was unaccounted for.

“Further investigations revealed the personal particulars of other senior colleagues had been used to submit fictitious applications for cash advances and claims that varied from meals to accommodation costs [and] other claims.”

The alleged fraud was committed between April 2015 and September last year.