Colonel Gavin Jacob, commander of the Durban Organised Crime Unit, has denied any involvement in the 2021 drug theft in KwaZulu-Natal.
Image: IOL Screenshot
Colonel Gavin Jacob, commander of the Durban Serious Organised Crime Investigation Unit in the Hawks, told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday that he believes Hawks members conspired with criminals in the 2021 theft of 541 bricks of cocaine worth approximately R200 million from the Hawks Port Shepstone storage facility.
Jacob was one of two officers asked to inspect the shipping container suspected of holding drugs at the Durban Harbour in June 2021 as reported by IOL.
He said the theft of the drugs had embarrassed the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as the Hawks, the police and the country "and should not go unpunished".
"I do believe that DPCI members have conspired with criminal elements to carry out this crime," he said.
He accused Major-General Hendrick Flynn, the Hawks’ component head for serious organised crime, of misleading the commission after suggesting in testimony last month that the 2021 theft of 541 bricks of cocaine was “by design”.
Flynn told the inquiry that in his view the sequence of events leading to the drug theft was not coincidental but "by design".
Jacob said, in response to Flynn: "The damage that Flynn evidence has caused to us, innocent members, by creating this false narrative and orchestrating his investigation to suit the same is irreparable."
He mentioned that Flynn’s testimony that the theft was "by design" and his theory regarding the sequence after the drug seizure was devoid of evidence to support it.
"It is clear that I was not part of the decision to store at Port Shepstone but it is being insinuated that I was part of this planning by closing off this gap of storing it anywhere else," he said.
This was in reference to previous concerns that the seized cocaine consignment was taken to a DPCI storage facility in Port Shepstone, which is 100km from Isipingo Police Station, instead of to neighbouring police stations such as Maydon Wharf, Brighton Beach, Umbilo or Durban Central.
Jacob said he told Brigadier Campbell Nyuswa, head of the KZN Hawks’ serious organised crime unit, that he had "exhausted all avenues (and) I have no storage space" after the Isipingo Police Station's Warrant Officer Perumal had indicated the Station had no capacity to store the cargo.
Nyuswa instructed that the exhibits be taken there following consultation with Hawks head Major-General Lesetja Senona, who also took charge of the warehouse keys.
According to Flynn’s testimony, KwaZulu-Natal did not follow prescripts for handling the keys to the Port Shepstone warehouse where cocaine bricks went missing.
Senona is due to return to the commission on Friday to face further questioning over his role in the drugs disappearance.
Jacob also challenged Flynn’s criticism, asking whether Flynn had checked if neighbouring stations had capacity before saying he should have used them.
He accused Flynn of misleading the commission by omitting a key point, saying Flynn’s claim that “I find it strange Isipingo has never had a problem with the exhibits” could not be made “in light of this”.
Flynn told the commission that 547kg of mandrax had been stored at Isipingo Police Station’s SAP13 16 months earlier, yet suddenly there was not enough space to store 541kg of cocaine.
But, Jacob said Flynn did not tell the commission that the mandrax exhibits were stored at Durban Central SAPS for one year and nine months.
Jacob testified that he had no knowledge of, and played no part in, the drug theft.
"I was questioned and polygraphed with regards to this incident. I passed the polygraph test," he said.
He also said the polygraph results now carried no weight after evidence showed the testing process was riddled with irregularities and had been declared invalid.
This was in light of information at the commission this week that polygraph tests of KZN Hawks officers regarding the R200 million cocaine theft were discarded after the examiner made “serious errors”.
Jacob's testimony continues.