TWO Angolan nationals charged in Namibia's largest case of alleged cocaine trafficking to date pleaded not guilty to all charges against them at the start of their trial in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Angolans Daniel Joao Paulo (42) and Josué Manuel Antonio (44) are charged with dealing in or possessing a Namibian record quantity of 39,35 kg of cocaine, with a street value of N$20,125 million, in the period from December 20 2007 to September 30 2008. Paulo and Antonio both pleaded not guilty to three main counts of dealing in cocaine and three alternative counts of possessing cocaine, when their trial got under way before Judge Collins Parker.

According to a brief plea explanation that defence lawyer Percy McNally gave to Judge Parker, the two charged men are claiming that they did not physically possess the substances over which they have been charged, that they did not have an intention to possess the substances, and that they also did not know that they were supposedly in possession of illegal substances.

Paulo and Antonio were arrested at a Police roadblock near Keetmanshoop in the early morning hours of December 20 2007. It is alleged that they were arrested after a Police officer discovered a hidden compartment under the vehicle in which they had arrived at the roadblock, and found a total of 30,1 kg of cocaine, valued at some N$15,5 million, in the compartment.

It is also alleged that on September 30 2008, more cocaine was found hidden in the spare wheel of the vehicle, which had been parked in a Police garage at Keetmanshoop since the two suspects' arrest. Some 9,25 kg of cocaine, with a street value of N$4,625 million, was allegedly found secreted away in the spare wheel.

A member of the Police's Drug Law Enforcement Unit at Keetmanshoop, Sergeant Frans van Wyk, testified yesterday that he was at the roadblock outside Keetmanshoop when Paulo and Antonio arrived there at about 01h25 on December 20 2007. When he asked them where they were heading to, Paulo replied that they were on their way to Upington in South Africa to visit their brother, Van Wyk said. Antonio was the driver of the vehicle, and Paulo did all the talking when he spoke to them, Van Wyk said.

He related that he asked them to park their vehicle next to the road, and that he told them he was going to search the vehicle for drugs, firearms or anything illegal.

In the glove box and under the backseat of the car he found a total of four rolls of brown adhesive tape, Van Wyk said. He also found a pop rivet gun, a red box with drill bits, and some pop rivets inside, as well as two cans of deodorant and a can of vehicle air freshener. Despite the smell of all of these, Van Wyk still sniffed out something much more incriminating as well, the court heard.

Van Wyk, who has 22 years of experience in the Police's narcotics unit, testified that inside the vehicle he picked up the pungent smell of cocaine.

He found nothing else suspicious inside the vehicle, but when he had a look under the car, he found a hidden compartment, fastened with rivets, where the vehicle's spare wheel would normally have been stored, Van Wyk testified. When he opened the compartment, he found 62 parcels, wrapped in plastic and the same sort of brown adhesive tape that he had found inside the vehicle, he said.

These parcels contained cocaine, it is alleged.

Paulo and Antonio were arrested and charged.

Nine months later, the Commanding Officer of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Barry de Klerk, phoned him and told him that he had received information that someone was planning to steal the vehicle, as there was still more cocaine in the car, Van Wyk told the court.

He said he then drove to Mariental, where the two suspects were detained, and returned to Keetmanshoop with them. In their presence, the spare wheel attached to the back of the vehicle was taken off. Van Wyk said when he let air out of the valve of the wheel, he again detected the odour of cocaine. When the tyre was removed from the rim of the spare wheel, another 14 parcels of cocaine, in identical packaging as the first 62, were found, he said.

Van Wyk is set to continue giving evidence today.

Deputy Prosecutor General Johnny Truter is prosecuting.