True Crime South Africa

PODCAST | Hidden in plain sight: The Windward cocaine bust

12 September 2022 - 12:04 By Nicole Engelbrecht
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The Windward stands moored at the end of a pier in Saldanha Bay harbour after her crew and alleged Bulgarian organised crime members were arrested with nearly a ton of cocaine.
CRIME SCENE The Windward stands moored at the end of a pier in Saldanha Bay harbour after her crew and alleged Bulgarian organised crime members were arrested with nearly a ton of cocaine.
Image: Aron Hyman

Listen here: 

On March 1 2021, the Saldanha Bay harbour was swarming with police officers. The object of their attention was a fishing and small-cargo vessel – The Windward – which had docked in Saldanha two months earlier.

Aboard the boat, special operations officers would uncover the Western Cape’s largest haul of cocaine up to that point — and as they investigated the 10 men on board, even more illicit activities would be revealed.

The arrested men, citizens of Bulgaria and Myanmar, made up a mismatched crew of perpetrators and victims. Uncovering their true level of involvement would be a mammoth task.

In episode 91 of True Crime South Africa, we use The Windward bust as a prime example of the tangled web of organised crime that exists just beneath the surface of ordinary South African life.  

For more episodes, click here.

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