House, cars of ‘smuggler’ confiscated

[caption id="attachment_231472" align="aligncenter" width="630"] State advocate Warren Myburgh, left, with Ashraf Laher during the early morning raid at Laher’s Malabar house
Picture: Fredlin Adriaan[/caption]

Hawks, Asset Forfeiture Unit swoop on Malabar home 

The cars and home of an alleged cigarette smuggler with links to self-confessed tobacco bootlegger Adriano Mazzotti were confiscated by the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) in a dawn blitz in Port Elizabeth yesterday.

During the operation, more boxes of cigarettes packed inside a minibus were off-loaded as, according to authorities, the preservation order was only for the vehicle and not its contents.

Two cars and a house were seized by the Hawks and NPA on Monday morning in Malabar. More to follow.

— HeraldLIVE (@HeraldPE)

The boxes were off-loaded into the garage before the vehicle was towed away.

Shortly after the bust in the Bay in October, South African cigarette manufacturer Carnilinx’s chief operating officer, Mohammad Sayed, insisted the cigarettes seized – which he said belonged to the company – were legitimate and that the publicity around the arrests of the Laher brothers had led to a “negative stigma [being] attached to Carnilinx”.

Sayed said they were certain the stock would be released after the invoices and paperwork were shown to the authorities.

However, police confirmed yesterday that they still had the stock.

Last month, the Sunday Times revealed ties between Sayed, his Carnilinx business associate Mazzotti and presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

In one photograph, Sayed and Mazzotti are seen posing with Dlamini-Zuma.

Investigative reporter Jacques Pauw’s explosive book The President’s Keepers also claims Mazzotti admitted in an affidavit in 2014 that Carnilinx was complicit in fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

According to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, Mazzotti and Sayed are listed as directors of Carnilinx.

Dlamini-Zuma has denied any direct or substantive relationship with Mazzotti.