Small-time hood has underworld and cops quaking
The Big Squeal | The man who holds the key to busting SA’s most notorious crime bosses is a foul-mouthed brute who was a figure of fun among his cohorts. Werner Swart profiles George Louka
AS he stepped off the plane at OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday morning last week, George Louka’s mind may have wandered back to nearly four years ago when he made his escape by the same route.
When he settled into his firstclass seat in May 2010, he probably ordered a shot of his favourite whisky and no doubt thanked the gods for his good fortune.
He had managed to give the slip to the police hunting him for the death of controversial Teazers founder Lolly Jackson.
Fast-forward more than 1 370 days to the present, and Louka is back to face the music. As he was escorted by the police from the plane and taken to a secure location, the tremors could be heard in Gauteng’s criminal underworld. The man who could bring them all down was back.
A day later, he made a brief appearance in court for Jackson’s murder, flanked by elite special task force officers. Their presence showed he is a valuable asset and witness for an imminent crackdown on the criminal underworld.
Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko removed any doubt that Louka is a key player. “Louka is being very cooperative. He is important in unravelling this whole underworld . . . it can finally open up a lot of things.”
People close to the investigation say the popular theory that Louka was the one who killed Jackson will be proven false. Only one, forensic inves- tigator Paul O’Sullivan, is willing to go on record. “The whole myth of what happened that night will be blown wide open. There should be a lot of very worried crooks and cops out there today,” he said.
How is it that a foul-mouthed, drug-addicted, small-time con man came to hold the key to unravelling the underworld?
And how could such a man — described by another underworld character as “as strong as he is stupid”— be the man dirty cops now fear will bring about their demise?
This big guy was always in the back. We just knew him as the guy running the dirty errands
Before 2007, Louka, who liked to use the alias George Smith, was nothing but an insignificant crook. He would buy stolen goods, stash them in a small warehouse and dabble in debt collection and intimidation.
In a book written after Jackson’s death, Lolly Jackson: When Fantasy Becomes Reality, Louka was described by an associate as small fry. “He ... would pick at the scraps tossed at him by the big-time operators. He never got the cream. Only the crumbs,” the associate said.
But, in 2007, Louka met a big fish. Locked in a holding cell at the Kempton Park police station for the possession of stolen goods, Louka met a cellmate who would entertain him with stories of his charmed life on the run, fast cars and easy money. The man was Czech fugitive and Mafia boss Radovan Krejcir.
Speculation has been rife for years that dirty cops or even people in higher authority concocted this “chance” meeting. The conspiracy theory goes that they knew Krejcir was loaded with money and could be a handy asset to grease their palms.
Krejcir, a stranger to South Africa, would need someone to show him around, introduce him to the right people and help him set up his criminal enterprise.
If this story is true, the position of Krejcir’s tour guide fell to Louka.
Louka would become Krejcir’s right-hand man. He even helped the Czech pick out his palatial home in Bedfordview’s exclusive Kloof Road, known as “Millionaire’s Drive”.
He would get to meet highprofile people with loads of cash, such as Lolly Jackson, a man with an ego and a supercar collection to match that of Krejcir’s. Whether Jackson and Krejcir ever really liked Louka is not recorded. Jackson even saved Louka’s number on his cellphone under the name “FAT George”.
What is known is they would use him to do dirty work. Somebody owed them cash? Send Louka to bust him up. Need a foreign bank account to launder money? Use Louka’s name. Scare someone? Louka will make the call.
Former Laiki Bank manager Alekos Panayi cast the first light on the money-laundering scheme between Krejcir and Jackson in a bombshell affidavit before the latter’s death in May 2010.
Panayi revealed how Krejcir and Jackson were illegally channelling money in and out of South Africa, with Louka, apart from being their muscle, being used to create offshore accounts.
Louka’s name surfaced before Jackson’s death. In December 2009, attorney George Michaelides shot and killed private investigator and information peddler Kevin Trytsman at his law offices in Bedfordview. He claimed it was self-defence.
None other than Louka arrived afterwards to “congratulate” the lawyer. It seems Krejcir did not take kindly to Trytsman not following through on his promises. Louka told Michaelides the Czech wanted to thank him in person over lunch. Whether he took up the offer is not certain.
Louka was an anonymous player. Unlike Krejcir, who was notorious in his home country, and Jackson, who made the front pages for his clashes with the law and perverted publicity stunts, Louka was the shadow lurking in the background.
A prominent lawyer who dealt with Krejcir and Jackson said: “We would consult, and this big guy was always in the back. Radovan would say things like ‘The fat f*** is high again’ and make fun of him. We just knew him as the guy running the dirty errands.”
Louka, a married father of four, rented a house from a friend in Edleen, Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg. Life in South Africa seemed to be one of drunken, drug-fuelled parties in between breaking people’s legs.
This all changed on the night of May 3 2010. Jackson was shot several times at Louka’s home. Krejcir would later claim Louka came to the Harbour Restaurant in Bedfordview to confess.
Krejcir has been quoted as
Life in South Africa seemed to be one of drunken parties in between breaking people’s legs
saying of the night: “I was sitting here in the table . . . and he [Louka] came and he said ‘I kill Lolly Jackson’. You know, George, drugs and all this s*** . . . We laugh at him. He said: ‘Okay, no problem.’ He went to order the two packets Camel filter and took them. He left to the car.”
Former Gauteng crime intelligence boss General Joey Mabasa also went on record shortly after Jackson’s murder, claiming Louka had phoned him to confess. When Mabasa and a team arrived, Louka was nowhere to be found.
Louka disappeared for a year until he was tracked down by the Sunday Times in Cyprus in May 2011.
In a face-to-face interview, he revealed that he stayed in South Africa for 17 days after Jackson’s death before flying out first-class on a Cypriot passport that a courier had delivered to him. He would not speak about that night, saying: “I am alive because I am not a betrayer.” He denied being a bad guy. “I am not this angry, aggressive person who just beats people up for fun, like everyone says. I am a family man. I have three daughters and a son, and I love them. I can’t live the rest of my life like this, wondering who is following me.
“This is not a life. If someone in Lolly’s family wants revenge and wants to kill me, I am ready for that,” he said.
Photographer Raymond Preston took Louka’s picture at the restaurant where the interview took place. It was splashed on the front page of the Sunday Times on May 15 2011 under the headline “I will not go down alone”. Preston said Louka, a heavy drinker who chainsmoked throughout, seemed “nervous”.
“He seemed like a suspicious debt collector and quite superstitious. You weren’t allowed to cross your arms in front of him because he thought this would bring bad luck,” said Preston.
Louka was finally arrested in Cyprus a year later and spent the past two years fighting his extradition.
When that failed, he was brought back by a team of Interpol detectives last week.
Much has changed since he left South Africa. Not only is Krejcir in jail awaiting trial for an attempted murder case, but Mabasa has left the police under a cloud. And all those cops whom Louka knew were on his boss’s payroll would not have slept well this past week.
O’Sullivan said Louka would also shed light on why German supercar tycoon Uwe Gemballa was murdered in 2010.
It was known that Krejcir and Jackson had promised to pay for a local chain of Gemballa’s supercars.
In return, said O’Sullivan, he would have no problem with Louka striking a plea bargain. “It will be worth it if he can help sink these mafia types and the crooked cops. I, for one, would be more than happy if, once they are all put away, he gets put back on a plane to Cyprus.”