EXPANSION OF ACTIVITIES BY INTERNATIONAL CRIMNAL GROUPS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

South Africa's crime problems are are very hard to pin down. A lot of us feel the issue can be easily solved - and don't see the big picture at all. Since SA's emergence from isolation, after the elections that saw the ANC step into power - a lot doors opened for legitimate businesses around the world - to tap into this once restricted market. However the international crime syndicates also stepped in. The problems caused by regular crime - can be terminated with the right approach. However - what makes it difficult, are the organized crime groups - that have ties to these small criminal elements.

The article below (a potion of the complete report) was: Published in African Security Review Vol 8 No 6, 1999.

It has been clear for some years that international criminal organizations involving, among others, Nigerians, Russians, Chinese, Moroccans and Italians are operating in South Africa. The exact extent to which such criminal organizations are active, will hopefully become clearer once the results of the national organized crime threat analysis are known.

Nigerian criminal groups.

Police investigators confirm that Nigerian crime syndicates now dominate the illicit trade in cocaine in South Africa. The first Nigerian syndicates established themselves in Johannesburg during the late 1980s, many of them consisting of illegal immigrants. They became prominent as cocaine dealers in about 1993 and, during the past three years, have moved into larger cities and towns throughout South Africa. It is estimated that between 45 000 and 100 000 Nigerians live in South Africa. According to the Nigerian High Commission, there are only 700 legally registered Nigerians in South Africa.13 The Nigerian syndicates have by now established a countrywide network of contacts and co-operation and continue to expand their activities.14 They have close links with Nigerians in South America, from where the bulk of cocaine is imported, but also with fellow countrymen in countries such as Austria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan and Switzerland.

Police at Johannesburg International Airport confiscated 30 716 kilograms of cocaine powder in 1994 and 218 070 kilograms in 1998.15 According to police of the narcotics unit in Johannesburg, they confiscated 339 kilograms of cocaine during the five months from 1 January to 31 May 1999 compared to 183 kilograms during the same period in 1998.16 Indicators therefore point to a significant expansion in the illicit trade in cocaine by Nigerian syndicates. According to the police, these syndicates have branched off into the cannabis trade in recent years and have since emerged as key exporters of Southern African cannabis to Europe.17 There are also indications that Nigerian syndicates are becoming involved in trafficking of heroin although still on a small scale at this stage.

A new phenomenon involving Nigerian syndicates is the kidnapping or killing of victims of the Nigerian ‘419’ letter scams. The scam involves appeals to international businessmen requesting their help in the transfer of over-budgeted money in exchange for a promised percentage commission. In June 1999, three Nigerians, one Ghanaian and a South African were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of a Jordanian businessman who had been lured to South Africa and then kidnapped upon his arrival. His kidnappers demanded US $40 000 from his family for his release.18 Police are currently investigating seven similar cases of kidnapping. Four of the victims were foreign businessmen who were lured to South Africa and then kidnapped. Substantial ransoms were then demanded from their families. One of the victims was shot and killed.

Russian Criminal groups.

Available information indicates that no arrests of Russian criminals in South Africa have taken place to serve as confirmation that organized Russian crime groups are active in the country. Senior police officers, however, confirm that organized criminal activities of Russians came to their attention for the first time during 1995. They are of the view that Russian organized crime groups or networks have not only been involved in organized crime for some time, but have been expanding their activities.

When the South African Minister for Safety and Security visited Moscow in November 1998, he told a media briefing that Russian criminals in South Africa were involved in arms-smuggling, fraud, car theft and drug-trafficking. He provided the Russian authorities with a list of 23 names of persons, some of them known internationally,19 who were under suspicion for involvement in criminal activities in South Africa. He informed the media briefing, held in Moscow on 24 November 1998, that the South African police feared that Russian criminals could also be dealing in uranium.

Police confirm that Russian criminals are operating throughout Southern Africa. Aircraft, including large Russian manufactured former military transport planes, piloted by Russians, are known to have landed under cover of darkness at some of the many small and unguarded airstrips in South Africa to offload and load goods. According to a senior police investigator, the Russians in South Africa operate in networks of small groups. There are indications that some of them have links with the Russian Mafia in Russia and that networking with them takes place. Police believe that a number of suspects are conducting their criminal activities, including money-laundering, behind the cover of legitimate business operations, a typical phenomenon of the Russian Mafia and other internationally more established criminal groups. At the media briefing in Moscow, the South African Minister for Safety and Security confirmed this when he told the briefing that there would be closer working relations between Russian and South African police. Such co-operation would include the checking on companies registering in the respective countries because "... some people set up licit companies to cover illicit business."

Russian organized crime does therefore constitute a threat to South Africa. More intelligence and police investigations will be required before a clearer assessment can be made of the impact and scope of their activities.

Chinese criminal organizations.

South African detectives, particularly in the Western Cape and Gauteng, have been aware of the involvement by Chinese criminal groups in a range of criminal activities for many years. These include the ongoing smuggling of abalone to the East (a delicacy and aphrodisiac in China), illicit trading in rhino horn and ivory, the importation and distribution of drugs, money-laundering, tax evasion, the illegal trafficking of Chinese immigrants into South Africa and trading in contraband goods.

It was only during 1992 and 1993 that police investigations were able to confirm for the first time that Chinese criminals active in South Africa were linked to at least three different Chinese triad organizations based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. These links were with the Hong Kong-based ‘14K’, and the ‘Wo Shing Wo’ triads. Others, who were part of the so-called ‘Table Mountain Gang’ in Cape Town, were linked to triads in Taiwan. Police soon discovered that members of these triads were also operating in the Johannesburg/Pretoria area, as well as in other harbor cities in South Africa. They further confirm that Chinese criminal groups in South Africa with links to triads have expanded their activities in the country in the past few years.

Cape Town is no longer their main area of operation. The Johannesburg and Pretoria areas have become the hub of their activities and accommodate a far higher number of Chinese criminal organizations than Cape Town. Their presence has recently even been observed in small seaside resorts such as Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape. Detectives estimate that about eighty per cent of the turnover of Chinese crime groups result from the illegal trade in abalone. This percentage is likely to decrease as they expand into other lucrative illegal activities.

The legal business of harvesting and selling abalone, in which Chinese syndicates are now trying to establish themselves, is worth approximately R550 million per annum. Police estimate that the illegal harvesting and trade in abalone, in which the Chinese criminal groups dominate, is worth approximately R500 million. The risk of being caught is low because inadequate attention is being given to the depletion of marine resources, and the product can be sold legally in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

During May 1999, for example, police observed approximately a 100 divers in the water in a marine nature reserve at Cape Recife near Port Elizabeth, diving for abalone. They consisted mainly of unemployed white males from Port Elizabeth, who, according to the police, were augmenting their income by supplying Chinese criminal organizations with illegally caught abalone. The process of depleting the Cape coast of abalone therefore continues unabated.

The fact that Chinese organized crime is diversifying into other areas of activity is illustrated by recent arrests. During the first six months of 1999, police and customs investigators intercepted two freight containers, one in Johannesburg and the other in Durban, containing more than one million mandrax (methaqualone) tablets each.22 A number of Chinese citizens were arrested. Police believe that the mandrax originated from China from where it was shipped through Singapore to South Africa.

South Africa’s recently established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China holds the promise of increased trade, but also of an increase in organized crime in the country.

Freight containers loaded with drugs, intercepted by South African authorities during the past two years, indicate that not only Chinese, Nigerian and Russia criminal groups are targeting South Africa, or using it as a conduit for re-shipment. The following schedule illustrates that links exist with Indian, Angolan, Colombian, Armenian and Romanian criminal networks. The illicit drug trade in South Africa is therefore truly international and large volumes are involved.

The Italian Mafia.

The renewed interest shown during the past three years in the activities of Cape Town-based, Sicilian-born, Mr. Vito Palazzolo, alleged by Italian authorities to be involved with the Sicilian branch of the Cosa Nostra (Mafia), has raised questions about the presence and involvement of the Italian Mafia in South Africa. Palazzolo, who arrived in South Africa during the 1980s, and who appears to have developed long lasting ties with security operatives of the apartheid state and with organized crime, is wanted by the Italian police on charges of membership of the Sicilian Mafia, drug-trafficking and money-laundering.

According to a 1998 secret report to the then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Palazzolo was identified as the ‘boss’ of a Mafia structure in the Western Cape. A man of considerable wealth, the police found some R500 000 worth of diamonds, and documents indicating that he had invested more than R25 million in various companies in South Africa and Namibia, when arresting him in 1998 on a Swiss extradition warrant. Italian authorities have also linked him to other alleged mafiosi who were sheltering in South Africa. Palazzolo "never gets his hands dirty", but is said to be a master at corrupting government officials, and is believed to have suborned an ANC cabinet minister, a security force general, a top immigration official and ‘many’ policemen.

Police in South Africa have relaunched their investigation into the activities of Palazzolo, but are reluctant to throw any light on the extent of involvement by the Italian Mafia in South Africa. Cape Town and Johannesburg appear to be the centers from which Italian criminals operate. In Cape Town, Palazzolo is reported to have frequented a nightclub which was also the favorite haunt of well-known leaders of Cape Town organized crime groups such as Rashied Staggie, leader of the Hard Livings gang, and others.

The sophistication of senior Italian Mafia operators world-wide has enabled them to penetrate middle and senior government echelons. The extent to which that has happened in South Africa will hopefully become clearer once present police investigations are completed.