Grant Noble and Dinath Azhar will know

Staff Reporter

All eyes are fixed on the Walvis Bay magistrates court this morning to see whether two suspected cocaine dealers, Grant Noble (36) and Dinath Azhar (62), will be freed on bail, following their arrest in mid-June after 412 kg of cocaine was found hidden in a cargo container in the port of Walvis Bay.
The bail application hearing concluded on Monday. The State, through State-Prosecutor Salomon Kanyemba, argued the duo should remain in custody, as the investigation is still ongoing and the seriousness of the alleged offence does not warrant them being freed on bail. Kanyemba further put it to court that more charges may be added to the existing drug dealing charge and that could include drug trafficking. The container with the cocaine originated in Brazil via South Africa and more people are involved. Kanyemba said several more statements needed to be taken by the Police to conclude the investigation and it is there-fore not in the best interest of the investigation that they be free on bail.
As opposed to the State’s insistence that it has a water tight case against Noble and Azhar, their legal representatives, the seasoned Jan Wessels and Sisa Namandje, argued they would prove a number of discrepancies. They questioned the validity of a search warrant with which the police got access to the container in which 412 kilograms of cocaine were found in the port of Walvis Bay in mid-June this year. They questioned why only 2 kg of the 412 kg of cocaine were tested in a laboratory to determine whether indeed it was this drug.
This is officially the biggest cocaine bust in Namibia’s history and among the biggest so far on the African continent.