Cocaine bust accused says he was in Knysna to open eatery

KNYSNA: A Johannesburg Chinese restaurant owner said yesterday he got caught up in South Africa’s biggest drug bust when he travelled to check out the possibility of opening an eatery in the Garden Route town.

Zhi Zhong Liu, 52, is one of six men accused of trying to smuggle 1.7 tons of pure cocaine into SA through Knysna harbour aboard the Toledo fishing boat on December 10, 2010.

Testifying in his own defence, Liu said yesterday in the Circuit Court in Knysna that he had told his friend of 10 years, Ying Tau Mo, about his plan to open another restaurant.

“He suggested Knysna. There was not too much competition from other Chinese restaurants and the town attracted many tourists,” Liu said through an interpreter.

On December 5, 2010 he and Mo and another Chinese man took a flight from Johannesburg to George, where they drove to a flat on the Knysna waterfront. Mo told Liu the flat belonged to a friend and he could stay there while doing “market research” into the possibility of opening a restaurant in Knysna.

Mo and the other man were staying elsewhere in Knysna, but Liu said he shared the flat with the other two Chinese men accused in the cocaine case, Xing Cuo Chen, 58, and Yuwei Yau, 30.

On December 6, 7 and 8 Mo took him around Knysna, checking out prices of restaurants and supermarkets. Mo was meant to take him to Cape Town on December 9 to visit friends, but postponed the trip and instead asked Liu to drive to Port Elizabeth to collect another Chinese man.

On his return to Knysna, Mo promised to take him to Cape Town the next morning, but Mo didn’t pitch up and Liu was arrested by police who raided the flat around midday and found the massive haul of cocaine aboard the Toledo, moored outside.

Liu said that before the police arrived, he had phoned Mo a few times to ask where he was, and had also phoned him once after the police got there to complain about being arrested.

“I asked Mo why he brought me here to open a restaurant, and now the police are here. I wanted him to come and explain to the police why I was there.”

He said Mo promised to come to the flat to clear things up, but never arrived. Prosecutor Helene Booysen said cellphone records uncovered in the police investigation showed that Mo had received Liu’s call in the Kaaiman’s Pass area while travelling from George to Knysna, but then turned the car around and drove to Johannesburg. Mo left the country on a flight from OR Tambo International the next day.

“You wanted to warn him that the police were there… He knew what was on the boat and so did you,” Booysen said, adding that Liu’s story about investigating the possibility of opening a restaurant in Knysna was a “smokescreen”.

“In fact, you came here to oversee the arrival of the Toledo and to deal with the shipment of drugs.”

Liu denied the allegations.