Glenn Agliotti has died. (Photo by Gallo Images / City Press / Lucky Nxumalo)
- Convicted drug kingpin Glenn Agliotti has died.
- Police said he died at a Johannesburg hospital on Friday night.
- Agliotti played a vital role in the 2010 corruption trial of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Gauteng police have confirmed that convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti died in hospital on Friday night.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo said they were called to the hospital just after 19:00, where an inquest docket into his death was registered.
“Police can confirm that an inquest docket has been opened at Douglasdale police station. A postmortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death,” Masondo said.
Agliotti played a vital role in the conviction of former police chief Jackie Selebi on corruption charges in 2010.
The drug kingpin was accused of gifting Selebi money and clothes. In exchange, Selebi shared information with Agliotti, protecting him from criminal investigations, the Mail&Guardian reported.
The publication also reported that the state claimed Selebi took more than R1.2 million from Agliotti, and was accused of defeating the ends of justice by showing Agliotti secret police reports.
Selebi’s trial drew much attention as he was the first black national police commissioner to be convicted of taking bribes from a drug kingpin.
Selebi was sentenced to 15 years in jail, but was granted medical parole in 2012, less than a year into his sentence.
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He subsequently died at a Pretoria hospital in 2015. He was 64-years-old.
According to the New York Times, Selebi was reported to have had diabetes and kidney disease.
“His trial and its outcome were widely seen as a fall from grace, born of hubris and greed, of one of the country’s leading lights,” the publication said at the time.
Agliotti was also linked to the 2005 murder of mining billionaire Brett Kebble.
News24 previously reported that Agliotti owed his business partner John Stratton R15 million.
Andrew Vincent Minnaar, Kebble’s former housekeeper, told the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg at the time, that about three weeks before his boss was killed, “there was mention of money”.
Kebble and Stratton wanted the “R15m they were paying Mr Agliotti for Mr Selebi”, Minaar told the court.
The information about the money was contained in documents at the Kebble home, but these were destroyed or taken to Cape Town by Stratton after Kebble’s death.
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