Cape Town - Suspicions that a police sergeant based at Swellendam was involved in “drug running”, led to two under-cover police operations to trap him.
The sergeant, Marco Reginald Pepper, 33, of Anamoon Street, Swellendam, on the southern Cape coast, is to go on trial in February next year, on charges of drug dealing and corruption.
Pepper made his third court appearance on Thursday, in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
He was warned to appear in court again on February 24, when he is expected to go on trial.
According to the charge sheet, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) was authorised to set up two under-cover operations to trap Pepper, by the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions, but Pepper was only to be arrested after the second trap.
In the first trap, on April 17 this year, an under-cover agent was given R1 000 comprising bank notes that had been photocopied, as well as a plastic bag containing 29,87g of “tik” to give to Pepper.
The agent did so the same day at a hotel in Swellendam – the money being Pepper’s reward for delivering the drugs to a police official in disguise, waiting for him at the Buffelsjags service station in Swellendam.
The second, similar, under-cover operation took place on Aril 27, when Pepper received a bag containing 30g of tik, and a second reward of R1 000, at a supermarket, to be given to the same police official waiting in disguise at the petrol station.
This time, Pepper, driving a marked police vehicle, was blocked as he drove off, and was arrested.
He now faces two counts of dealing in drugs, and two of corruptly receiving his R1 000 reward.
African News Agency