Court allows perly search evidence

Spy camera in poacher’s house, helicopter-aided car tracking and wild goose chase described in hearing

DETAILS of a CCTV camera being set up in a perlemoen poacher’s home and how alleged syndicate members sent police on a wild goose chase were revealed yesterday as the court ruled in favour of the state presenting its evidence, despite finding the majority of the search warrants to be invalid.

Investigating officer Captain Kanna Swanepoel testified for the second time yesterday in the racketeering case of Port Elizabeth businessmen Julian Brown, Eugene “Boesman” Victor and Brandon Turner.

Judge Mandela Makaula had ruled, at the conclusion of the trial-within-a-trial, that although several of the search warrants executed by police were defective, the Port Elizabeth High Court still needed to hear the evidence leading to the arrests of the state’s string of Section 204 witnesses.

The men – now due to testify for the state – were arrested in the lead-up to police cracking what they say was the most lucrative poaching ring in the city.

Swanepoel, led by state advocate Martin le Roux, said witness Renier Ellerbeck was approached to make a statement after he was sentenced on a perlemoen-related charge in 2015.

“He then gave an explanation as to how the enterprise worked,” he said.

Swanepoel said Ellerbeck informed him that Brown, 32, the alleged head of the enterprise, no longer wanted to use him as a diver, but wanted to use his Algoa Park home to weigh the perlemoen.

Swanepoel said the divers would then drop the perlemoen at Ellerbeck’s house, where it would be weighed by another member, before being fetched by yet another member of the syndicate who would transport it to a storage facility.

Ellerbeck was not always in the picture as to where these storage houses were.

“The weighing was done for the syndicate leader to know exactly how much perlemoen was harvested by each diver so that payment and [transportation] could be arranged,” he said.

“Ellerbeck would then supply us with information as to who collected the perlemoen and gave a description of the vehicle being driven.”

Swanepoel said he needed to put certain measures in place to test Ellerbeck and ensure he was telling the truth.

“I then provided him with a video camera to put in his house and he managed to successfully record the weighing of the perlemoen on three separate occasions.”

Le Roux said he would present the recording to the court when Ellerbeck takes the stand later this week.

Ellerbeck informed Swanepoel that Turner, 38, would collect the perlemoen and take it to a storehouse.

“He gave me Turner’s particulars, said he was driving a white Golf and supplied me with the registration number,” he said.

Swanepoel’s team followed Turner over a period of about two weeks, making use of police motorbikes and a helicopter. He said another vehicle, allegedly belonging to Brown, would tail Turner, making it difficult for police to follow him without being detected.

“It took a week or two, but we were eventually led to a house in Westering,” Swanepoel said.

Turner was arrested when perlemoen was allegedly found in a freezer, as well as a list of each diver’s harvest.

Because the Westering property could now no longer be used as a storehouse, Ellerbeck said a new property had been identified in North End.

As a new security measure the enterprise began dropping off the perlemoen somewhere in Kamma Ridge, for another member to collect and take to the storehouse, Swanepoel said.

It was like the poachers had sent them on a wild goose chase. But after much observation, they discovered the perlemoen was being hidden in a hole in the ground under a lucerne bale.

Testimony continues today.

I provided him with a video camera to put in his house