Kingpin ‘Vet’ Murphy convicted in landmark drug case

It was about halfway through acting judge Diane Davis’s ruling on Wednesday that Mitchells Plain drug dealer Fadwaan Murphy closed his eyes and shook his head. For only a moment at the end of his five year-long trial did Murphy look as though he might cry.

In a landmark ruling, Davis convicted Murphy and his ex-wife Shafieka on racketeering charges for operating a drug smuggling enterprise.

It is the first time South African authorities have convicted an organised crime group for drug-related offences and the ruling sets a case law precedent.

Murphy was supported in the court by his girlfriend and alleged drug dealers from Worcester, one of whom was out on parole for murder. 

During the trial, Murphy had made a mockery of the court. From the start, he was released on a warning to return to court for his court dates. He made it clear, however, that he was at the court out of his own free will. 

At times Murphy would take phone calls and leave the courtroom while speaking loudly into one of many phones he carried with him. According to sources, his drug operations were never deterred by his trial. 

A regular feature of his appearances was his ability to fall asleep in a sitting position followed by disruptively loud snoring, which on multiple occasions demanded that the court officers intervene and wake him up.

But on Wednesday, Murphy was awake and listening to every word spoken by Davis.

According to Davis, police investigator captain Nadine Britz and senior state prosecutor Aradhana Heeramun wove together an “impenetrable web of interlocutory evidence” using cellphone triangulation to prove that Murphy and Shafieka were using 18 Reindeer Close in Grassy Park as a crystal meth packing facility.

The cellphone evidence supported witness statements that placed Murphy and Shafieka and members of Murphy’s drug operation at 18 Reindeer Close on regular dates when drugs were packed by Murphy’s employees. 

This was backed up by bank statements showing that Murphy’s company Ulterior Trading Solutions was paying his employees on a weekly basis for packing drugs. 

The trial was the result of a surprise discovery on September 18 2015, of a large haul of drugs at 18 Reindeer Close where Shafieka, Zuluyga Fortuin, and Felica Wenn were caught “red-handed” packing tik (crystal meth) into small plastic packets. 

After the arrests Wenn and Fortuin approached Britz and asked to become section 204 state witnesses, meaning they were eligible to be acquitted of charges against them if the court found that they were co-operative witnesses. 

The trial has not been straightforward. The dramatic twists and turns in the proceedings have rivalled a work of fiction.

—  Acting judge Diane Davis

However, as fate would have it, the case would turn out to become one of legendary intrigue and the witnesses would be turned against the state by Murphy and his co-accused.

“The trial has not been straightforward. The dramatic twists and turns in the proceedings have rivalled a work of fiction,” said Davis.

The trial started in 2018. Over the years in which the trial ran in the Western Cape High Court it was plagued by death, assassination, and a pandemic. 

“The presentation of the state’s case was protracted due to no less than six trials-within-a-trial, in which the defence challenged the admissibility of evidence. It is no exaggeration to say that every conceivable technical point was taken on behalf of the accused,” said Davis. 

In only one of these challenges did the defence manage to get charges in one of the 229 counts dismissed. 

Davis ruled that Fortuin and Wenn are now also liable to be tried because their testimonies were ruled to have been untruthful. 

Both had reneged on their written statements that said the investigating officer had either forced them to make statements or had changed aspects of their written statements and that there was a conspiracy on behalf of the prosecution against the accused.

In another shocking twist in the trial, a Murphy confidant who had regularly attended court appearances in support of the drug boss, Rushdien Abrahams, was arrested for possession of drugs.

On his phone, police found audio recordings made on the days before Wenn and Fortuin were to testify as state witnesses.

The recordings revealed that the witnesses were “influenced to disavow their section 204 statements” and coached to sing to Murphy’s tune. This included a narrative aimed at discrediting the investigating officer.

During the trial, the lawyer for Glenda Bird, one of Murphy’s co-accused, advocate Vernon Jantjies was assassinated in 2019 outside his linen store in Mitchells Plain. Shortly after that, Bird herself died due to a recently diagnosed illness.

Shafieka’s lawyer, Johan van Aswegen, also died before the defence could finish their case.

Murphy and Rafieka were found guilty on two charges of racketeering for running a criminal enterprise and on 121 counts of attempted drug dealing. 

They were also charged on a further 74 cases of money-laundering.

As soon as the ruling was made, Murphy and Shafieka appeared to be under the illusion that they were free to leave the stand, even when the court ruled that they were to be incarcerated in Pollsmoor Prison until their sentencing on July 18.

Members of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit were in court to immediately serve Murphy with an asset forfeiture order to seize all of his property.

The case, both in its design by the investigators and prosecutors, and in its outcome, will have a knock-on effect on other drug cases being built on the framework of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) that gives prosecutors a new set of claws with which to take down large organised crime groupings.

A similar case has been built against alleged gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen for his alleged drug empire and Wednesday’s case has provided case law for that case and future drug cases. 

Under Poca the state can request a minimum of life imprisonment or a fine of R1bn.

Capt Britz was visibly emotional when the ruling was read out. When asked for comment, she told reporters she was “very emotional”.

“I believe that righteousness and justice will prevail, and it did today,” she said.

TimesLIVE Premium understands that Britz faced threats to her life and was afforded a security detail before and during her protracted testimony in the trial.

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