A veteran cop with 28 years experience says she carried out a warrantless search at a drug warehouse allegedly belonging to suspected kingpin Fadwaan “Vet” Murphy because she feared evidence would be “flushed away or eaten” if she didn’t act quickly.
Captain Nadine Britz of Lentegeur Police Station’s detective unit testified at the trial within a trial at the Cape High Court yesterday.
Last week Murphy and his six-co-accused pleaded not guilty to 229 charges relating to racketeering, dealing in and possession of drugs and money laundering and other crimes under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).
Judge Diane Davis ordered the hearing to determine whether cops had a warrant on 18 September 2015, when they seized drugs and money worth R4 million at a house in Reindeer Street, Lotus River.
Britz told the court she had built a profile on Murphy for two years and she first met him in 2013, when he was charged with assaulting his ex-wife.
TESTIFY: Captain Nadine Britz
Britz said she had received intelligence weeks before the Reindeer Street search that accused number two, Shafieka Murphy, and two other women were travelling from Worcester in a VW Jetta to package drugs for Murphy, but that she had no address.
On the day of the raid, she was informed Shafieka was at the house and she made a critical decision to search the premises as she feared evidence could be destroyed.
“In my experience drugs can easily be disposed of, even eaten or placed in the washing machine.”
She says an application for a warrant “would have taken hours”, and they would have missed a golden opportunity to bust a drug syndicate.