Voice-over: This is WesPro TV serving the West Province. And now Jim Simes is going to present the first case from The Black File.
Simes: This is The Black File. It looks like an ordinary vanilla folder, it's not even black in colour. It contains compromising material, horrible photos, disgusting reports, details of corruption, real black stuff. There's a lot of it.
Where did The Black File come from? Good question. Maybe we'll be able to tell you later. Five different organisations want to take us to court to gain possession of it. We are not letting it go – no way.
So the first case: we found the transcript of five telephone calls. This is the written record of five tapped phone calls between two guys X and Y. It is not dated, there are no names and no guarantee that it is accurate or true.
Here is the transcript, the two voices X and Y are spoken by actors. It has not been edited, there are grammatical errors and unintelligible words. Who are X and Y and what are they talking about?
X: Jack here.
Y: Hi Walt. The pineapples have arrived at the docks. I'll call back when we're ready to deliver.
X: OK! Uguhhhhhhhh!
X: Is that you Walt?
Y: Yeah. The p'apples will be delivered as usual tomorrow north and the day after south.
X: OK, my boys will be south and north. When do I pick up my cabbage?
Y: 'tell yer tomorrow.
Y: That you Jack?
X: Yeah...
Y: ... cabbage available at the usual place tonight at eight.
X: God, be seeing yurgg.
Y: Pineapples ready to go as usual
X: OK, usual routine.
Y: Big troutle, absolute bags-set. No cabbage.
X: I know, but...
Simes: So what do you think? Are they really talking about pineapples and cabbages? I don't think so. Maybe something hot, like guns or drugs.
I showed the transcript to a guy I know who's recently left the police and he said: drugs. A day later he called me and told me he found the phone calls intriguing, especially the north and south bit on two days, one after the other.
Ex-policeman: My colleagues and me were often ordered to the south of the city on the first Thursday of the month and to the north on the next day. It was rather odd and very unsuccessful, but the Chief Investigator wanted it that way.
However four months ago the Friday was different. Five of us had taken leave that morning to go to the funeral of a friend, an old retired cop. Afterwards we had an hour or so free IN THE SOUTH of the city. We were standing around on a street corner eating doughnuts and saw a couple of guys that we knew (laugh) enter a building and minutes later drive out again. Interesting.
We phoned our on-duty colleagues and asked them to stop and search the truck. BINGO! Five trucks later we had four tons of the hard stuff and eight men, possibly the whole of the second level of a drug network.
The Chief Investigator congratulated us, but I could see that he wasn't happy. About three weeks later the five of us were fired on a technicality: paying for doughnuts with police funds. We were framed and yeah, I gotta a grudge against the Chief Investigator.
Simes: The phone calls matched the policeman's story, but the evidence was very thin. The Chief Investigator was safe for now.
One of our researchers found another telephone log (Thank you Toby.) It was somewhere else in The Black File. It was on an official-looking, printed form and typed.
P: Jack here.
Q: Hi Walt. I've got pineapples arriving soon, have you sorted out the trouble.
P: I've arranged to have the leader of the group fired...
Q: … You mean your ass...
P: Yeah, and hopefully his friends too. I'll teach 'em to eat doughnuts.
Q: OK, but let's wait a few weeks before the next load of pine...
Simes: Are you thinking what I'm thinking? P didn't ignite his behind or a four-legged animal – The Chief Investigator fired his assistant. I showed it to my policeman friend and he said “Bingo! That's it. I recognise this form. And very important, it has a serial number. It can be checked against the records.”
This morning WesPro TV presented to the city's Police High Commissioner the phone transcripts and our interpretation. He read it and sighed and said that it would be investigated some time – in other words he thought that it was fairy stories.
I handed over the last transcript. The High Commissioner's face changed, he ordered us out of the building without thanking us. The Chief Investigator and a well-known member of the underworld are being questioned now. It's going to be an interesting trial.
Simes: That's our first case. Maybe it explains why The Black File was not given directly to the police.
Last thought for the day. Who are these two guys? Marked A and B on your screen. Send us an email or phone us if you know. You can find the two faces on our internet site. If you have any questions about The Black File or have any info or if you feel that you are in danger just contact us.