HEADQUARTERS of OPERATION WEST
DURBAN
21 JANUARY 2004
WILLIE LOUW: Just a few words last Friday early Saturday morning one of our members was shot in the face, I dont want that to happen. We have no friends out there I want you to be full alert when you go out tonight. I want you to have a no nonsense approach and to be careful out there and to be professional. Barney is going to brief you about what we are going to do tonight.
BARNEY: Okay guys Saun and myself will have observation posts in one of the hotels. Will have sight from the top of this area
and Gills rock. And thats the place where West Africans are selling crack, cocaine and ecstasy from. Cause its Wednesday night its pretty busy and the guys rock up there one after the other. So while two vehicles have left to do the take down, we sustain the rest of the vehicles to sort the problem out. Its 815 at 830 everyone mobile, straight to the designated areas and contact myself or Saun so you can tell us where you are.
TITLE: west vs west
Report by: Jacques Pauw
WILLIE LOUW: I dont say all Nigerians are involved in crime I am talking about the Nigerians involved in crime. They put such a lot of people on a highway to hell. And Nigerians involved in the drug trade as well have no place in this country. The Nigerians are taking over; they control according to our opinion 80% of the drug trade in this country. Drug dealers and drug lords are nothing but murderers.
POLICEMAN: Big bad rope you got a green light.
WILLIE LOUW: So I havent got much of a feeling for them. We will hunt them down and we will keep hunting them and we will bring them to justice and send them to jail for as long as we possibility can.
V/O: These are the men and women of Operation West a covert and special police unit in Durban that targets Nigerian drug syndicates.
WILLIE LOUW: We are at war with drug lords and drug peddlers, most definitely at war. This is not just ordinary policing. But it is most definitely zero tolerance. These drug dealers are not people that you play with, you do the work and you must be professional.
V/O: Operation West was formed two years ago to combat West African criminals in Durban. Today, their sights are almost exclusively set on Nigerian drug dealers.
For ten days, a Special Assignment team was granted complete and free access to the actions of Operation West
as they raided, searched, arrested and harassed Nigerian criminals in the city.
WILLIE LOUW: Zero tolerance means staying within the law, but dont take nonsense. Be fast, be professional and be effective.
POLICEMAN: they were pointing from the top there and they were trying to tell us where they normally hide it and we searched but there was nothing.
V/O: Tonights raid nets large amounts of ecstasy tablets, some cocaine and two Nigerian drug dealers.
WILLIE LOUW: You can basically buy drugs at every street corner; you can buy it in any building. And if you arrest the one the next one will just move in.
WEST AFRICAN DEALER: Since last year I never do anything.
JAC PAUW: so since last year you havent dealt in drugs.
WEST AFRICAN DEALER: No way.
JAC PAUW: And before last year.
WEST AFRICAN DEALER: No way I do not lie because I dont have anything to do
nothing anything
now I am working.
WILLIE LOUW: I want to refrain on Nigerians who come here with honest motives they will always be welcome. I am talking about Nigerian criminals. Not only are they involved in the drug trade, they are involved in so many other crimes that involves car theft, care hijackings, murder and blackmail, fraud.
BARNEY: Mum, please take this ouk for me to Point.
V/O: The club African Paradise has been raided several times in the past year. Every time large amounts of drugs were found. The Asset Forfeiture Unit might soon seize the property in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
BARNEY: Yes they can come and collect their stuff but you are not open to the public and selling liquor at this moment.
CLUB OWNER: Until when?
BARNEY: Until tomorrow
you are now closed.
V/O: Durban South Africas premier holiday destination. It attracts thousands of visitors every year to its golden beaches and high-rise hotels. But over the past ten years, Durban has gained another reputation: as a drug trafficking capital.
Dr. PETER GRASTROW: Durban is ideally located for any criminal group that is involved in the import and export of narcotics, or fake goods or gold. It has a large well functioning harbour. The number of containers that go through the harbour cannot all be checked. They are used to bring in narcotics from South East Asia, heroin as well as cocaine from South America. I think its widely accepted that as far as cocaine supplies are concerned in South Africa the Nigerians dominate.
WILLIE LOUW: The annual turn over for drugs are more of less very conservative on a region of 1.4 billion rands.
V/O: This is Point Road only two blocks away from the beach front. Its now a haven for drug dealers many of them Nigerian criminals who have flocked to the city to sell crack, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.
WILLIE LOUW: The Nigerians will move into a building and that building will become theirs, other people are not welcome there they will make life uncomfortable. Then people will not feel safe there and they will move out. The peddlers will move in there with their prostitutes. And that is their place of business. In one month a drug dealer can sell drugs up to 310 000 rands. At every one time when there is approximately ten dealers who were billing in the Point area. In point land its about 34 buildings where drug peddling is rife.
Dr. PETER GRASTROW: They appear to have qualities which many of their competitors in the organised crime world dont have to the same extent. So much as great innovators, strategic thinkers, they are entrepreneurs of a top class. And they have widened their scope by becoming involved with financial crimes, frauds, credit cards, 419 scams. And also more recently in crimes that involve violence for example car hijackings.
Visuals of church and singing.
V/O: Its impossible to determine how many Nigerians are in South Africa and how many of these are involved in crime. The police say there are between 40 000 and a 100 000 Nigerians in the country. Of those, only 5 000 are legal. The rest enter the country illegally or seek political refugee status. Austin Okeke is the head of the Nigerian-South African Friendship Association.
AUSTIN OKEKE: I know South African who are involved in crimes too like wise we have Nigerians that are criminals. We have Nigerians that are professionals, pure professionals, and very intelligent people ready to add value to society. All I am saying is we should learn to respect them as well learn not to generalise.
V/O: The Department of Home Affairs refused to participate in this programme
or answer questions on how many Nigerians there are in the country. We wanted to question the Department about allegations that their officials are involved in wide-spread corruption
that they provide Nigerians with documentation and false papers that allow then to stay in the country.
AUSTIN OKEKE: Drugs are coming in here not because Nigerians can bring drugs here, Nigerians
around the airports, the seaport or the land border. South Africans work there and they connive with foreign criminals to bring in drugs.
Dr. PETER GASTROW: The department of home affairs is certainly infiltrated by Nigerian, Chinese, Pakistani organised criminal groups who through corruption and bribery ensure that they get passports, forged documents, permits.
WILLIE LOUW: You get policeman working with the Nigerians on and off. You get corruption within the justice department, you get corruption at home affairs. Its a crisis
we have arrested two home affairs officials two weeks ago
taking bribes.
Visuals of arrest at Davids house.
V/O: Operation West was formed two years ago
a response to the ever-expanding criminal activities of Nigerian syndicates.
V/O: West is an initiative between the Police Service and the Durban Metro Police. This concept might soon take off in other cities around the country.
WILLIE LOUW: In the past two years we have made over 900 arrests. Weve confiscated drugs of more than 15 million rands. And I am sure if we go on and on and hammer them, and disrupt them and arrest them we will succeed at the end of the day. And if the public assists us we can get rid of this menace.
AD BREAK: After the break
the men and women of Operation West.
WILLIE LOUW: I can just tell you to work on a team like Operation West you must be a very special person. Except that you must be dedicated and then you must be honest, and hard working and you must be totally committed to work here.
WILLIE LOUW TOAST PROPOSAL: We have hot something to do here tonight. And Serene you must stand up, you are a new member here. You have passed your tests and we are proud of you. We think you can become a full blooded member of Operation West.
BARNEY: There is certain things you have to do here and because you dont drink alcohol beverages, you have to drink all these and then swallow your bullet. There is your bullet with your name on it.
Cheers and clapping.
WILLIE LOUW: This is extremely dangerous work. You are never safe you get a lot of death threats. We are aware of people hoofing in the syndicates. They plan to murder us, let me tell you today if something happens to one of my men or women. We will chase those people responsible to the end of the universe and we will get them.
Visuals of stake out
V/O: This is a typical nightly raid carried out by Operation West a so-called buy-bust where street dealers are targeted.
V/O: Two undercover policemen approach a street dealer in Gillespie Road to buy ecstasy tablets.
V/O: The police say this is the Nigerian drug dealer who controls the area - Kevin Chieduokeke - alias China. He watches as yet another of his drug dealers goes down.
POLICEMAN: We are going to finish you China.
CHINA: Yah
you people are finishing me already.
POLICEMAN: We take all your boys.
CHINA: Yes I can see everybody
POLICEMAN: We told you Saturday morning that its war.
CHINA: We Nigerians we hate violence
you understand
we hate violence. So you find out that whenever they come out to the street they are ready to fight the war, they are ready to do anything and they are ready to track you down. They are ready
you know
to put you behind the bars.
WILLIE: We have declared war on the drug trade. China is part of the drug trade.
CHINA: They bust a place where the Nigerians are staying and they start hitting people for nothing. Sometimes they treat us like we are animals you know
like we are nobody.
WILLIE: He is quiet a big syndicate in the Point area. He never dirties his hands but he helps with the training of new arrivals in the drug world.
V/O: Chieduokeke came to South Africa in 1998 and applied for political refugee status. Since then he has married a local woman and started a family.
CHINA: The job is not there for us, then we have to join the fast lane. To make sure we live. Either you beat them or you join them. Either you loose or you win. And we are fighting to win because we dont want to loose because if you loose you end up going to jail.
WILLIE LOUW: He knows about the drug trade. Everybody he mixes with are in the drug trade. Where they sell the drugs China is there, whats he doing there.
CHINA: I cant leave my wife and my child to be suffering there I have to join the business and join the game. To make sure that I can sustain and leave my life. Because life is too hard for we Nigerians in South Africa
its too hard for us.
WILLIE LOUW: And sooner or later his time is going to run out and I think he knows it.
CHINA: Nobody wants to go to jail, and there is no option. No job no work nothing you join the crew.
Police raid
WILLIE LOUW: There is a top structure like the Caecilian mafia who meets once in a while where they will open these meetings with a prayer. I know that because I am in possession of notes. And then they will plan the operations, they will plan how much a corrupt cop must be paid and how much the advocate for brother so and so must be paid. And when they finish that meeting they will close that meeting with a prayer
CHINA: I fear God and I return to church every Sunday with my family. I pray to God for forgiveness. Even though I have sinned before him.
WILLIE LOUW: We have got t prove a case in court. He is clever and extremely intelligent, like most of them are.
CHINA: I have got my rights, I have got my papers I am processing which if I am not mistaken two years from now I will be a citizen of South Africa.
AD BREAK: when we return
Nigerian criminals and their prostitutes
Police raid
V/O: Anti-drug legislation allows the police forcibly to enter and search suspect premises without search warrants - under certain circumstances. But raids like this one seldom produce large quantities of drugs. Nigerian criminals have a sophisticated warning system. Their buildings are barricaded with steel gates. By the time the police get in, the drugs are gone. In this case, these two dealers have kept note of their drug sales.
BARNEY: 10 5, 5 2 what is all this?
DEALER: I dont know I am not the owner of this diary.
BARNEY: Well is that so
DEALER: Yah?
POLICEMAN: What are these pieces
pieces, what pieces are you selling here.
V/O: Pieces is a codeword for ecstasy tablets.
BARNEY: Is that your hand writing?
DEALER: No?
BARNEY: It is look
POLICEMAN: Judgeworth 464 pieces
POLICEMAN: Whos China?
V/O: The police also discover these dealers have contact with none other than China.
POLICEMAN: Who is China? I see you have got names here.
DEALER: China
POLICEMAN: Yah here, there is China, 2pac
V/O: But the cops can do nothing else but let them go.
WILLIE LOUW: They all have prostitutes working for them. Some of these women are very young but they are all drug addicts. The Nigerians pay them by giving them drugs. They will do anything to feed their habits. Say they will sleep with anybody whom the Nigerians direct them to sleep with or they will bring their own clients. The idea of the prostitute is to get clients, and normally it will go with sex and liquor and then the crack and cocaine will come up.
GIRL: Ek bly met my boyfriend maar my boyfriend is nie hier.
JAC: Wie is jou boyfriend?
GIRL: Zaka
JAC: Waar kom hy vandan?
GIRL: Hy is Nigerian.
WILLIE LOUW: They feel nothing for them they feel nothing at all. I have seen many sad cases among prostitutes people who do not belong there.
Police raid
V/O: This Nigerian has papers to show that he has been granted temporary refugee status. But according to the prostitute in his room, he is a drug dealer who supplies her with crack. The police find evidence of crack use, but dont find any drugs.
JAC: This girl says you sell crack.
WEST AFRICAN MAN: Oh she is talking nonsense
Im just sleeping.
PROSSY: Im a prostitute
JAC: Do you take drugs.
PROSSY: I used to take rocks, I used to take buttons but now I just smoke weed.
JAC: Why dont you take rocks anymore?
PROSSY: Rocks are fucking people up huh
I used to work for someone whose Nigerian before and I would find a rock. I am blind because of a bloody Nigerian. I got hit by this one mad Nigerian in the face. Im blind I cant see in this eye.
JAC: And when you were working for the Nigerians how did they treat you then.
PROSSY: They have a lot of girls working for them selling their bodies, getting clients sometimes they rob the clients. You know all these bad things.
Police street arrest
V/O: Another buy-bust operation. This Nigerian is arrested for selling ecstasy tablets to undercover policemen.
WILLIE LOUW: If we continue to disrupt, if we continue to hammer them and if they get good sentences. We will most definitely make a difference. But we must just never give up.
CHINA: Whatever you do to have to survive you do it and whatever you do to survive you join it.
Point police station
POLICEMAN: You dont deal you run a shop heh
nice neh.
DEALER: What have I done to these people
they put something in my pocket. They searched me and put my hands in the back handcuffed. What have I done
What have I done
What have I done. They put it in my pocket
End Credits
DEALER: This is my papers, this is my papers
I dont know about these things
I dont know about these things
I dont know about these things
please.
FINAL END CREDITS
THE END