South African minister's wife guilty of drug trafficking

South African minister's wife guilty of drug trafficking

2011-05-06 04:26:26 GMT+7 (ICT)

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (BNO NEWS) -- The wife of South Africa's state security minister on Thursday was found guilty of drug trafficking, the South African Press Association reported.

Judge Piet Koen said Sheryl Cwele, wife of Minister Siyabonga Cwele, and her co-accused Nigerian Frank Nabolisa worked together to recruit two women to work as agents to transport drugs. The two had pleaded not guilty to procuring a woman called Charmaine Moss to collect drugs in Turkey, and procuring another woman, Tessa Beetge, to smuggle cocaine from South America.

Beetge is currently serving a jail sentence in Brazil after being caught with 10kg (22 pounds) of cocaine in her luggage in 2008. Meanwhile, Moss, who turned down an offer to go overseas and pick up a parcel with unspecified contents, was a State's witness.

The judge earlier turned down the State's application to reopen its case so it could call new witnesses to the stand. The case was postponed until Friday for sentencing.

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