A man sitting on a bench at a filling station and munching on a packet of crisps would seem like a common enough occurrence and not likely to rouse any suspicion, right? Wrong – because when you are a member of Crime Intelligence acting on information that the filling station is also used as a distribution spot for hard drugs and you are trained to pick up on specific behavioural patterns, you are not going to take anything at face value.
After conducting observation duties at the indicated filling station for some time, the Crime Intelligence members of the Sunnyside Cluster informed Capt Michelle Doubell of the Villieria Police Station that a drug-related crime suspect had been identified, and requested backup.
Capt Doubell is responsible for providing operational support in the precinct where the filling station is located and immediately dispatched Visible Policing members to the hotspot. Upon their arrival at the filling station they questioned the suspect, who at that stage still did not give any indication of being guilty of any crime. But when the members took the packet of crisps from him for closer inspection, he quickly changed his tune. Inside the packet police found 250 packets of heroin with an estimated value of R25 000,00. The suspect, who identified himself as 31-year-old Leshabo Katlego, was arrested and the heroin seized.
He has already appeared in court where bail was successfully opposed. Unfortunately most of the information provided by the suspect has so far turned out to be false, and Capt Doubell expressed the urgent need for a customised drug-related crime database. “It is easy to falsify personal information, therefore it would be very helpful if we could have a database featuring information about perpetrators’ modus operandi and specific physical characteristics, for example tattoos, in order to help us to link cases,” she said.
Amid allegations of corruption and poor service delivery within the SAPS there are still core groups of dedicated members who are fighting against the proliferation of drugs, and Capt Doubell and her colleagues are to be commended for their ongoing efforts in the face of limited manpower and resources.
“Patience and experience are crucial when it comes to combating drug-related crime. Seasoned drug peddlers are known to keep their cool when they see the police conducting routine search and seizure operations – if it had not been for the Crime Intelligence members’ experience in concealment methods and their careful observation beforehand, chances are the suspect would have casually closed the packet of crisps, put it to one side and sauntered off.
In such cases the police get the drugs, but not the man, and no arrest can be made. But in this case the police made the most of the surprise element and he was caught red-handed,” Capt Doubell said. When asked why the police had not followed the suspect in order to try and locate the main supplier, she said that in a case like this the risk was too high of losing the suspect altogether, especially if he were to board a taxi and leave the precinct, because the operational executive power of police members at grassroots level is limited to their specific area. They had to act quickly and as the saying goes, it is better to have one bird in the hand than two in the bush.
Hiding drugs in plain view is a favourite concealment method among seasoned drug peddlers. Sgt Pierre Fourie, Capt Michelle Doubell and Const Makama Morake of the Villieria Police Station. These visible policing members’ quick response played an important role in a suspect’s arrest and the seizure of r25 000,00′s worth of heroin at a filling station on the n1 in Pretoria/Tshwane recently.