In what is believed to be one of SA’s biggest succulent smuggling cases to date, a Gqeberha husband and wife scoffed at the chance of a plea bargain which would have seen them pay a fine and a guaranteed get-out-of-jail-free card.
The couple are allegedly behind a multimillion-rand succulent smuggling ring operating out of their Weltevrede Nursery in Colleen Glen, Gqeberha.
Nursery owners Karen and Anton Nel are alleged to have used their business to smuggle protected wild succulents internationally.
Instead, with the plea deal now off the table, the charge sheet against the accused will be amended to include a charge of racketeering, among others.
Racketeering carries a prescribed maximum sentence of a R100m fine or life in prison.
Members of the Green Scorpions swooped on the nursery and confiscated 15,000 succulents worth R2m after a botanist who researched the export of succulents to international countries became suspicious and alerted the authorities.
Wild succulents are endemic to a certain area and each has its own unique characteristics.
An investigation that started in May 2019 led police to expose a well-oiled ring of people who have stripped the environment of rare and endangered succulent species as far as the Northern and Western Cape.
The case against the Nels, who face 25 charges of fraud and the illegal possession of protected plants, has even grabbed the attention of US Fishing and Wildlife officials, who are said to have launched their own investigation, as some of the plants landed on their shores.
The plants were allegedly smuggled to the US, China, Japan and Belgium.
At the time of the raid, the accused were in possession of permits to export cultivated flora only.
Before the accused appeared in the city’s regional court on Friday, they were set to enter into a plea agreement with the state which would have meant paying a fine of R910,000 for the 13 charges of the illegal possession of wild succulents.
On the fraud charges, they would have received a sentence of 18 months on each charge, which would have been wholly suspended for five years.
They are said to have done an about-turn on accepting the plea to prevent the Asset Forfeiture Unit from applying for an order to seize their large Colleen Glen home, from which they operate the nursery.
The couple’s attorney, Masunet Strydom, asked the court for a postponement, stating that she would need time to acquire the services of an advocate for the trial.
Now that the state and the defence will go head-to-head at a full-blown trial, if found guilty, the sanction could be far greater.
The police will also do a deep dive into the couple’s financial records to determine the extent to which they apparently benefited from the alleged illegal activity, and whether the alleged misdemeanours were committed outside of the scope of 2017 to May 2019.
Present at court on Friday was Neville Armstrong, an attorney at the Green Law Foundation.
He was seconded to the case to provide investigators with objective expertise.
The foundation is an non-profit organisation that has an agreement with the national department of forestry, fisheries and the environment (DFFE) and acts on the request of either the national or provincial departments.
According to Armstrong, the pillaging of succulents from the environment is a serious problem that is damaging the ecosystem.
Some of the species that are being pillaged are near extinction and take 50 years to grow.
“More plant species are being ripped from the ground than what is left in the environment,” Armstrong said.
“These poachers dig up the rarest and most sought-after species. The ones doing the snatching are said to be paid peanuts per bakkie load.”
Those said to be buying the plants do so for horticultural purposes and view the rare plants as collectors’ items.
At the end of last year, more than 400,00 plants had been confiscated.
Armstrong said they were looking into mechanisms to assist the police to make sure that the plants seized ended up in a sanctuary where they could be rehabilitated and looked after.
The accused, who are out on warning, will appear in court again on June 3.
Advocate Mark Driman is prosecuting the case.
HeraldLIVE