Cape Town - Alleged underworld crime boss Nafiz Modack and an Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) member were in the dock on Tuesday on charges relating to a failed hand grenade attack at AGU Commander Lieutenant Charl Kinnear’s home.
They also face corruption charges, while Modack is facing attempted murder charges for Kinnear’s wife, Nicolette, and her two sons.
The duo appeared at the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court.
The appearance was met with high police and media presence following a whirlwind and mammoth investigation by crime intelligence teams led by the Hawks.
Modack and his co-accused, Ashley Tabisher, an AGU officer, are charged separately.
The matter was postponed to next Monday.
According to their official indictment , Modack, 39, who claims to be a businessman residing in Plattekloof and is married, faces a charge of actively participating in or being a member of a criminal gang, five counts of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiring to acquire an explosive and conspiring to have in his possession or under his control explosives.
The State is set to prove via a detailed package of charges that the attack was orchestrated together with the assistance of members from the JFK (Junky Funky Kids) gang, and to obtain explosive devices between September to November 2019, with the purpose of conspiring to murder Kinnear who had been investigating underworld trade.
Separate to this, the State believes the two attempted to murder Kinnear, his wife and sons Carlisle and Casleigh Kinnear, including two police officers at their residence in Bishop Lavis in November 2019.
Kinnear was assassinated outside his home last September.
In court documents, the State alleges Modack is the manager of an underworld enterprise who had concocted a relationship with a police officer, Tashiber, and JFK member Janick Adonis and his girlfriend, Amaal Jantjies, in conspiring to commit the murder of Kinnear.
Jantjies and Adonis had co-operated with AGU in order for Adonis to be granted bail or reduction of sentence at a separate matter at Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court.
The State alleges that accused two, namely Tabisher, had been responsible for the transportation of Adonis to court and that meetings were held between them, AGU head General Andre Lincoln and Jantjies, for a request to be granted for bail and to obtain their assistance for mitigation and aggravation of sentence.
Modack and Adonis had previously been in prison together.
It is alleged Modack had offered to pay for Adonis’ bail application at the Cape High Court and that payments of R20 000 were deposited into Jantjies’ bank account.
The State alleges Modack, via an associate, provided Jantjies with a vehicle and cellphone and that she was tasked to corrupt an AGU member, namely Tabisher, for information when his home would be raided.
The agreement would be that Tabisher would be paid R10 000, including being furnished with a cellphone.
Last week, the State called Jantjies a cold-blooded killer who had connections to the underworld and an arsenal of weapons, during her bail application at the Parow Regional Court.
Jantjies and her co-accused, Farez Smith, aka Mamokie and Adonis, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder relating to the hand grenade incident.
Modack, together with additional co-accused, Jaques Cronje and Ricardo Morgan, were arrested on April 29 following an investigation by the Hawks and AGU, and were nabbed during a high-speed chase where illegal firearms were found in vehicles in Century View, Century City.
The trio face charges of intimidation, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering and contravention of the Electronic Communications Act, and made an appearance at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday. They will be back in the dock on Friday.
Modack is facing another charge, that of the attempted murder of advocate William Booth, in April 2020. He is charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and illegal pinging, while Morgan faces a count of money laundering relating to the Booth incident.
During the high-speed chase, Modack is alleged to have tried to evade police. He is therefore charged with reckless driving, attempted murder and resisting arrest after apparently attempting to run over a police officer.
It’s alleged that Modack, with the aid of Zane Kilian, under the Contravention of the Electronics Act, intercepted Kinnear’s cellphone records and location (pinging), for a total of 658 times.
Kilian is facing charges at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court for the murder of Kinnear, attempted murder and additional counts.
The Hawks had initially in a statement said Modack would face a murder charge for Kinnear’s death but later retracted it.
Last year, Modack and three co-accused were acquitted of extorting Grand Africa Café & Beach restaurant in Cape Town. Modack, Colin Booysen, Ashley Fields and Jacques Cronje were acquitted when the Cape Town Regional Court said there was too little evidence to prove extortion. This came after the State closed its case.
They were accused of having demanded R90 000 for providing security in November 2017, hours before an event.
In March this year, Modack opened criminal cases against the Hawks, who he claimed tried to extort R1 million from him.
During an interview in the Daily Voice, dated March 10 this year, Modack, who was also investigated by Kinnear, said he had been contacted before the arrest of alleged Sexy Boys boss Jerome “Donkey” Booysen for the murder of Brian Weinstein; he was told that if he paid the investigator R250 000, it would ensure that Donkie was behind bars.
He claimed a top cop called him stating that his team wanted R250 000, that they would keep Donkie and not grant him bail. He said afterwards that he just entertained them to gain evidence, and laid a case of intimidation at Bothasig police station.
The case against Modack’s security manager, Petrus Visser, is expected to take place on May 12.
Visser, who is charged with intimidation, had allegedly threatened Captain Edward du Plessis, according to court documents. The alleged threat was that he abstain from his investigation into Kinnear’ case or face being killed.
Visser had allegedly called Du Plessis, informing him that there was R1m for his murder.
Visser is currently out on a R20 000 bail.
Weekend Argus