Court restrains syndicate assets after 306 kg dagga seizure in Bloemfontein
The Free State High Court confirmed a restraint order over two properties, household goods and 25 vehicles linked to an alleged Bloemfontein dagga syndicate. Police in Project Big Boy had seized 305.956 kg of dagga in November 2002 and arrested alleged syndicate head Andries Molatlhoe.
🇿🇦 Bloemfontein (Rocklands and Botshabelo), Free State · South Africa
On 18 November 2002 police in Project Big Boy, which investigated dagga smuggling in the Free State, searched various properties and seized305.956 kilograms of dagga with a street value of R305,956.[1]Andries Raborepe Molatlhoe was one of the people arrested, and a prosecution for dealing in dagga was later instituted against him.[1]Police said a syndicate controlled by Molatlhoe had dealt in dagga for years, with an undercover agent buying from its runners between June and November 2002, and some of the seized dagga was found in vehicles registered to him.[1]Officers also found an unlicensed firearm with two magazines, 26 bullets and a holster in a Corolla registered to him at the Taaibosch Street property.[1]
On 5 August 2004 the Free State High Court confirmed the provisional restraint order of 26 February 2004 over two properties at Mojatou Street in Rocklands and Taaibosch Street in Botshabelo, household goods worth about R300,000 and 25 motor vehicles.[1]The court found reasonable grounds to believe a confiscation order could follow conviction because his declared taxi income and tax returns could not account for the assets.[1]It ordered the defendant to pay the outstanding costs of the application.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Charged
1
Cannabis
305.956 kg
Agency type
Police, Court
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis
Activity
Smuggling
Setting
Home
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
Free State High Court, Bloemfonteinsheriahub.comArchived copyNational Director of Public Prosecutions v Molatlhoe (614/2004) [2004] ZAFSHC 85. Heard 29 July 2004, delivered 5 August 2004; Project Big Boy, 18 November 2002 searches, 305.956 kg seized, defendant arrested, dealing prosecution instituted, restraint of 2 properties, goods and 25 vehicles confirmed
Open questions the AI reported
Only the restraint judgment could be opened and no separate newsroom account of the 2002 searches was found.
The judgment names the defendant as one of the people arrested but gives no total number arrested.
The judgment states no outcome for the pending dagga-dealing trial or the two other pending cases.
No photograph of the event with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened source.
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