Africa-Press – Namibia. ONE of the men accused of smuggling a record quantity of cocaine into Namibia nearly four years ago says he was dizzy with shock when he saw drugs among the goods in a shipping container sent to his close corporation from Brazil.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Grant Noble said in the Windhoek High Court this week, while recounting the moments when he saw police officers discovering cocaine in a shipping container at Walvis Bay’s port.
The container was supposed to have been filled with A4-size printing paper which a close corporation of which he is the sole member, Zeeki Trading CC, had ordered from Brazil, Noble said.
However, when customs officials, police officers and a police sniffer dog searched the container, they found boxes containing compressed blocks of cocaine among the boxes of paper inside.
The state is alleging that 412kg of cocaine, with a street-market value of N$206 million, were seized from the container. This is the biggest quantity of cocaine seized in Namibia on a single occasion up to date.
“I became dizzy, because I could not believe what I was seeing,” Noble said about the discovery of the cocaine in the container. The cocaine was found on 15 June 2018.
Noble (40) and a fellow Walvis Bay resident, Dinath Azhar (65), are charged with dealing in 412kg of cocaine, alternatively possessing the cocaine. They also face a count of money laundering. Noble and Azhar denied guilt on the charges when their trial started before judge Orben Sibeya in June 2021.
They asked the judge to find them not guilty on all charges after the state closed its case in their trial in October last year. Sibeya dismissed their application to be discharged in a ruling delivered last month.
Testifying in his own defence this week, Noble said Azhar asked him for help to set up a corporate entity which he could use to do business. Noble said Azhar did not want to do that in his own name, as he had unpaid debts over which he had been blacklisted, and he could not open a bank account in his own name.
He registered Zeeki Trading CC to assist Azhar, and while he was the sole member of the close corporation, Zeeki Trading was actually a business vehicle of Azhar, Noble said.
He said the container with A4 paper which Zeeki Trading imported from Brazil was the first business the close corporation had conducted. Azhar never spoke to him about anything illegal or illicit, Noble said.
Azhar, whose testimony started yesterday, told the judge while doing research about products he could import and sell in Namibia, he came across a company in Brazil that sold paper. He said after doing his calculations he realised he could make a good profit from sourcing A4 paper from that company and selling it in Namibia.
Azhar said he and Noble never discussed the importation of cocaine. “Absolutely not,” he said. “It was’t even in our vocabulary.” He further said he and Noble did not know there was something wrong with the contents of the container shipped from Brazil until it was opened by the police and cocaine was found inside.
He paid N$217 000 for the paper imported from Brazil, and calculated that he could realise a profit of N$90 000 by selling the paper in Namibia, Azhar said.
He is due to continue with his testimony today. Defence lawyer Sisa Namandje is representing both accused. State advocate Tangeni Iitula is prosecuting.
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