SA mobbed by crime

Graeme Hosken | 30 October, 2015 00:14

SUSPECTED CRIME BOSS: Shai Musli, wanted in Israel for crimes including murder, appears in the Randburg Magistrate's Court yesterday. His bail application was postponed. His arrest has highlighted the preponderance of international crime syndicates in South Africa
Image by: ALON SKUY

For years Israeli security officials have been hunting him across the globe.

Shai Musli, who appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's Court yesterday and is now under guard at an undisclosed Gauteng prison, has allegedly been hiding out in South Africa since 2012, lying low and moving often.

According to prosecutor Christo Steyn, the alleged crimes for which Israel is seeking his extradition include murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is the alleged head of one of the most feared crime families in Israel.

Experts say South Africa is the ideal location for dozens of international criminal syndicates to ply their trade, launder their wealth and expand into new markets through the well-run local criminal underworld.

Rivalry and political interference have hamstrung police crime intelligence, allowing organised crime to flourish, according to Institute for Security Studies policing expert Johan Burger.

"Crime intelligence's turmoil, which includes a loss of vast experience, has seen police fail to gain control of organised crime. Local and international syndicates are capitalising on the mayhem."

Anything and everything that organised crime syndicates can turn into money is targeted, with foreign gangs forming strong complex networks with their South African counterparts, he said.

But, unlike the traditional Italian Mafia, which is controlled by a don, these networks are, according to organised crime researcher Khalil Goga, fluid, constantly changing, difficult to track and investigate, and working with "specialist" criminals to ply their trade.

He said the success of foreign organised-crime gangs in South Africa depended on their ability to network with "our criminals, who are incredibly entrepreneurial. The links are both formal and informal, with groups banding together to open up new markets. They use specialists in armed robberies and those who deal in stolen goods, weapons, people and drugs."

Goga said it had been argued that South Africa was ideal for organised crime.

"More sophisticated crime groups branch into various types of crime, honing in on our stability, including our excellent financial systems, while using our 'slight instability' to bribe the people they need to bribe."

The syndicates dealt in everything from drugs, gold, diamonds, money laundering, ivory, abalone, lobster, goods stolen in robberies, cigarettes, credit cards and identity documents.

"The country is both a source and destination point as well as a transit route. For narcotics and cigarettes we are a destination zone. For ivory, abalone and lobster we are the source."

Property, said Goga, was a means to launder money.

"Despite our financial watchdog agencies, the country in terms of this [property] is an investment zone, with syndicates exploiting loopholes."

Mobsters, like foreign business owners, liked countries like South Africa, wherethere were huge opportunities to make money.

"They look at countries like business owners do, except they also look at the strength of law enforcement and whether there are extradition treaties with their home countries and good criminal networks."

But locally based crime gangs were still the biggest in the country. "Bulgarian, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, Asian and West African gangs are here, but the South African gangs are the ones we need to be concerned about."

Professor Mark Shaw of the University of Cape Town said organised crime varied from city to city, but was driven from Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Cape Town's criminal underworld is far more organised, with gangs involved in drugs and protection through extortion, with foreign syndicates using their money to buy luxury properties.

Johannesburg gangs, according to Shaw, were far more diverse, focusing on different crimes, including hijackings, armed robberies, illicit gold and diamond dealing and drugs.

In Durban, organised crime centred on drugs and armed robberies, while Port Elizabeth gangs were similar to those in Cape Town.

Prosecutor Steyn said Israel was - through Interpol - seeking Musli's extradition for crimes including murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

He was remanded in custody until next month, when he will apply for bail.

His family has closed ranks, with his brother, who declined to be named, telling The Times that Israeli authorities were lying.

"My brother is [innocent]. He has done nothing," he said as Musli was led into the dock.

The family have allegedly rained terror on Tel Aviv, using their apparent connections to the global criminal underworld, including South Africa's, to remove rivals and expand their empire.