De Wet Potgieter

One of South Africa’s top crime bosses allegedly involved in international rhino poaching syndicates – and his brother – are the main suspects in the gruesome murder of an eastern European prostitute.

The badly decomposed body of Svetlana “Lana” Marutova, 34, was found at the beginning of this year in a deserted area near the Tswaing Crater north of Pretoria. Although she mysteriously disappeared in November last year, she was only reported missing in January.

Further investigations indicated that Lana was already dead in November and her body dumped in the deserted area, only accessible by 4x4 vehicles.

The New Age has learned reliably that the investigating officers now wants her body exhumed from her grave in Belarus, which borders with the Ukraine and Russia in eastern Europe, after new information emerged that Lana may have been killed with a tranquilliser used to dart rhinos.

The tranquilliser is extremely toxic for humans; a mere prick on the finger with a primed dart can kill a grown man.

At the centre of the murder lies the ownership of a white Land Cruiser that brought Lana late one night in November to the well-known Flamingo’s strip club in Pretoria, where she was renting a room.

A car guard at Flamingo’s said he saw Lana arrive in the Land Cruiser and hurriedly go into her room, before she was soon afterwards driven away in the same vehicle. She was never seen alive again.

The syndicate boss’s older brother owns a Land Cruiser that fits the description of the murder vehicle, and on the same day that police questioned the syndicate leader about the vehicle it was reported stolen from the Colonnade Shopping Mall north of Pretoria.

Lana was one of a group of prostitutes brought in from Eastern Europe by slain Teazer’s boss Lolly Jackson before his assassination. She appears to have been auctioned off for R60000 to pay her debts to Jackson.

According to police sources and sources within the crime syndicate, the leader of the syndicate – a renowned Afrikaans-speaking businessman, game farmer and big game hunting outfitter – and his brother were both besotted with Lana.

The sources also confirmed to The New Age that Lana was frequently used as an interpreter when the syndicate bosses had meetings with Russian gangsters to clinch criminal dealings. Most of these meetings were held at Flamingo’s in Pretoria and the Silver Star Casino near Krugersdorp on the West Rand.

This was confirmed by Pieter Crous, owner of Flamingo’s, who said that she had been “booked” out on several occasions by the syndicate boss to help interpret when Russian businessmen had meetings with him. She was also “booked” out on hunting trips where east European businessmen were “entertained”.

The only visible marks that could have caused her death were two marks on her chest, one on her stomach, and one on her head.

According to Crous, they discovered only in January this year that Lana was missing when her mother in Belarus enquired about her through the Russian Embassy in Pretoria.

She always went back home over Christmas and while she rented a room on Flamingo’s premises in Church Street, she was a “wanderer” who worked at different clubs, he said. When she disappeared she was working at Lang Bome (Tall Trees), a well known brothel near Rustenburg in the North West Province.

Then there were conflicting reports about her whereabouts just before her disappearance. Her friend and fellow “dancer” told the police she dropped her off at the Waterfall Mall in Rustenburg, but according to Crous the car guard at Flamingo’s saw her arriving at her room that night.

The police also want Lana’s body exhumed to investigate claims that she was pregnant at the time of her death. Shortly before her disappearance she scribbled notes in Russian on pieces of paper found in her room, indicating that she was trying to find a suitable abortion facility.

She told a friend in the trade that she feared for her life if the syndicate boss found out she was pregnant with his older brother’s child.

Crous described Lana as a very “neat and punctual” woman who always made sure to pay the rent for her room every month on time. Her room was also kept very neat and tidy and he said it was like a time warp when they opened it for the first time in January when they learned she had gone missing.

“It looked like time had stood still when we walked into that room,” he said. Everything was in place. Her passport was on the desk, her wallet and personal belongings all there, as if she just had gone out to go and buy cigarettes across the street.

“She would never have gone anywhere without her identification papers,” The New Age was told.