Durban - An Umhlanga businessman, charged in connection with an alleged Kloof drug laboratory, has been fighting to keep his R3.8 million property, which the State – believing it to be the proceeds of unlawful activities – wants to confiscate and auction.
The State alleges Duncan Naidoo’s house, in Everton Road, was bought to be used as a drug-manufacturing laboratory.
The State preserved the property in February and it has since been in the hands of a court-appointed-curator.
A director of public prosecutions, Kenneth Samuel, said in papers before the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday that on June 24 last year, police raided the property after receiving information that it was being used as a “clandestine drug laboratory”.
A chemical odour led police to the squash court where they found industrial-sized machinery, dryers and mixers, some of which were still mixing chemicals. Dispensers and steel pipes had been erected inside the building, which resembled a laboratory.
Three people – Warren Daniels and Chinese nationals Wing Lik Wong and Kin Hung Yip, who were wearing gas masks – were arrested for the manufacture of methaqualone (mandrax) and they were later denied bail.
Naidoo was arrested a few months later and was out on R700 000 bail.
Two thousand eight hundred litres of methaqualone was found in sludge form and 45kg in powder form. The drugs had a street value of R32 million.
The State argued that the registered owner, Junaid Rasool, was a “man of straw” and could not afford the house. He was charged a few weeks after the raid, but charges were later withdrawn.
It emerged the house had been bought by Naidoo and put in Rasool’s name. Samuel said the purchase of the property had been suspicious with the price being paid over three months, via eight electronic fund transfers.
Naidoo was opposing the application.
He said he had bought the property in Rasool’s name believing it would be a good business deal, and he had wanted to hide the deal from his wife, as their relationship had been strained.
Naidoo said there was no proof he had bought the house with the proceeds of any unlawful activity. He had involvement in numerous businesses with a track record pertaining to income and earnings.
“There is no proof I ought to have known of any unlawful activities on the property.”
By bringing these proceedings, he said, the prosecuting authority might well be abusing the procedure to force him into the witness stand in order to canvass issues relating to the criminal matter before the case.
Naidoo accused the authority of abusing the process by applying for the order before the criminal trial.
He also said no search warrants had been obtained before the raid and all evidence obtained was inadmissible.
He said the property had fallen into a state of disrepair since being taken over by the curator.
The case was adjourned indefinitely.
The Mercury