Cop tells of raid on 'tik lab'
2006-11-15 19:13
Cape Town - Two Chinese men were in a house which allegedly had been turned into a laboratory for making the drug, tik, in upmarket Plattekloof, near Cape Town when police raided it.
Bellville Regional Court heard on Wednesday that the men didn't answer when police knocked on the front door with a search warrant.
Captain Johan Smit, of the organised crime unit, told the court he co-ordinated the investigation that led detectives to the luxury John Vorster Street house in Plattekloof.
Appearing before magistrate Michelle Adams are eight suspects, four of them Chinese, who all have pleaded not guilty to dealing in, and possession of, tik.
Smit told the court his team got warrants to search a private garage at Bellville Business Park, and a home in Somerset West, in addition to the Plattekloof home.
Swooped in Plattekloof
He said police saw Chinese nationals Jiang Dong Li and Kam Wai Ho at the Somerset West house, loading cardboard containers on to a bakkie belonging to Jannie Hong, and taking the containers to Plattekloof, in December 2004.
Three days later, the team swooped on the Plattekloof house about 17:00.
Smit told the court: " I could see into the lounge, where I saw Li on a couch. He didn't want to open the gate for me at first.
"When he came to let me in, I saw Ho leave the lounge and go down the passage."
Smit said that in one room police found a plastic bag with clothing and others containing tik,.
In a second room, they found two vacuum sealers, as well as a shoe box containing plastic bags of tik.
In the main bedroom, police found clothing, as well as cartons containing laboratory glassware.
As the police went down a flight of steps to the lower level of the house, they were hit by a strong smell of chemicals, said Smit.
He said the police had to force open two locked doors, one leading to the garage.
Smit told the court: "In the garage, we found a number of items for making tik, such as gas bottles, a washing machine, cooking pots with a long-handled spoon and a number of rubbish bins.
Found ephedrine powder
"On one side of the garage, I found yellow stains, caused in the drug-manufacturing process, and a container with a black substance, which I identified as chemical waste."
In the second room, they found bags containing white crystal powder, identified as ephedrine, a tik ingredient.
The hearing continues on Thursday.
- SAPA