Madlanga Commission grills officer over contaminated scene in missing cocaine bust

By Johnathan Paoli

Madlanga Commissioner Sesi Baloyi has delivered a blistering critique of the initial warrant officer’s testimony of accidentally, without ill intent, contaminating the crime scene in Aeroton, south Johannesburg in a 715kg cocaine bust.

Appearing before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, Warrant Officer Marumo Magane outlined how he and a provincial traffic police official, Deputy Director Samuel Mashaba embarked on following and busting a cocaine smuggling operation that culminated in a police operation at a Scania Trucking depot.

ALSO READ: Jobs bloodbath as number of employed falls by 345 000

Despite Magane’s claims of “making mistakes” in handling the contraband, Baloyi maintained serious skepticism of the logic of his account.

“So I’m giving you propositions that, one, you were either deliberately compromising the crime scene by contaminating it from the get-go, or you were ignorant about handling a crime scene such as this because you have absolutely