An ex-Springbok rugby player. The notorious 27s gang. The assassination of an international steroid dealer.
The three may seem totally unrelated, but court cases taking shape and set to play out in Cape Town are exposing suspected links between them and just how far the reach of organised crime as the State alleges stretches.
In the latest developing case, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen was arrested on Thursday, 18 February, along with five other men.
One of the five is Clinton Langeveldt, a former City of Cape Town law enforcement officer who reportedly resigned after he was arrested in November 2017. At the time of his arrest in the suburb of Bellville South, he was allegedly found in possession of R2-million worth of Mandrax.
During the early hours of 18 August 2017 a gunman fired five bullets into Brian Wainstein who was asleep in his bed in his Constantia home along with his girlfriend and child, who were unharmed during his assassination.
Wainstein, who was originally from Ireland, had been linked to several figures with suspected ties to Cape Town’s underworld, so his murder stirred up tensions in these circles.
He had a history of confirmed and alleged crime – in 2007 The Irish Times reported that he had illegally distributed bodybuilding steroids worldwide from Dublin and was sentenced to four months in jail.
At the time of his assassination, Wainstein was wanted in the US on drug and steroid related charges.
In a Cape Town courtroom in January 2018, claims emerged that the head of detectives in the Western Cape, Major-General Jeremy Vearey, was a member of the 27s gang and worked with the gang’s leader to have an attorney murdered.
Fast-forward nearly three years and claims of a similar nature have been made in another Cape Town courtroom. This time the claims focus on the head of the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU), Major-General Andre Lincoln, and are along the lines that he wanted a criminal suspect and the suspect’s partner to help him carry out a hit on someone who had been threatening him and his colleague, AGU member Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear.
Hits and highs: South Africa in the crossfire of warring drug cartels
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Developing cases and incidents surrounding the murder of South African security contract operative George Darmanovic, who was gunned down in May 2018 in New Belgrade, emphasise just how deeply South Africa is embedded in global organised crime.
Darmanovic’s murder is a pivotal assassination that rocked South Africa’s intelligence community, amplifying the overlaps between this country and Eastern Europe’s underworld. It is likely to remain unsolved after a court case recently fizzled out.
Several sources, with ties to policing, private investigations and who are familiar with the underworld, spoke to DM168 on condition of anonymity, citing safety reasons. They say certain assassinations that have been carried out in South Africa are flashpoints of international crime battles that may be tightly braided into deep-rooted State Capture-type projects
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Developing cases and incidents surrounding the murder of South African security contract operative George Darmanovic, who was gunned down in May 2018 in New Belgrade, emphasise just how deeply South Africa is embedded in global organised crime.
Darmanovic’s murder is a pivotal assassination that rocked South Africa’s intelligence community, amplifying the overlaps between this country and Eastern Europe’s underworld. It is likely to remain unsolved after a court case recently fizzled out.
Several sources, with ties to policing, private investigations and who are familiar with the underworld, spoke to DM168 on condition of anonymity, citing safety reasons. They say certain assassinations that have been carried out in South Africa are flashpoints of international crime battles that may be tightly braided into deep-rooted State Capture-type projects, making them exceptionally difficult and dangerous to properly unravel