A Durban man who has been charged with drug dealing researched ways to deal with police interrogations in the event of an arrest.
Newlands West resident Morgendren Gounden, was arrested in March 2010 after police raided his two properties and found over 184 000 mandrax tablets with a retail value of R9 million, drug manufacturing equipment and documents related to the manufacture of drugs.
Details of the police searches were contained in an application brought by the National Prosecuting Authority to preserve Gounden’s Tongaat farm and his vehicle, as “instrumentalities of the drug dealing offence”. A final preservation order was granted in the Durban High Court last month.
In his affidavit for the preservation application, deputy director of public prosecutions, Kenneth Samuel, said police officers received information about drug dealing taking place at a Newlands West property and decided to search the home.
He said that during the search police found a summary that detailed how a person should handle a police interrogation if arrested for drug-related activity.
“An unauthored document was found that purports to describe possible scenarios that may arise in the event that the police arrive at the house in connection with drug investigations. The document also sets out the line of questioning and techniques of interrogations that police may resort to in questioning,” Samuel said.
He added that police also found another document which contained information a person could use to explain how drugs came into their possession.
Explanation
“A document was also found which describes someone who unwittingly becomes involved in the manufacture of drugs. The document purports to provide the said individual with an exculpatory explanation for his involvement in the manufacture of drugs.”
Samuel said that police then searched Gounden’s Tongaat farm and found thousands of mandrax tablets stored in a warehouse.
Investigating officer warrant officer Izak Fourie said, in his affidavit, that Gounden had claimed during his bail application that the warehouse on the farm had been leased to an Angolan national, Francisca Daconceicao, but that the explanation did not seem plausible.
“A resident on the farm alleges that Gounden renovated the four-roomed structure in mid 2009 and told him that he wanted to rent it, but no one came to look at the rooms or ever rented it.
“The fact that Gounden was in possession of the padlock keys (for the warehouse) leads me to the reasonable conclusion that there is no lessee, and that the only person with access to the structure is Gounden.”
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, five men were arrested on Tuesday for being in possession of imitation versions of Viagra tablets and other drugs on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.
Police Colonel Jay Naicker said the men were arrested by Hawks investigators in Margate and Port Shepstone.
He said tablets, ointments and gels, with an estimated value of R880 000 were seized.
“All five suspects will be charged with dealing in unregistered medication as well as Schedule IV drugs and are expected to appear in court soon.”
