Publications
Partners
Cape Town – A fourth person has been arrested for the murder of international "Steroid King" Brian Wainstein.
Cheslin Adams appeared alongside Fabian Cupido and brothers Matthew and Sheldon Breet in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on murder charges on Wednesday.
It was Adams' first appearance.
Police maintained a heavy police presence throughout court proceedings, with up to eight in the courtroom at a time equipped with bulletproof vests, helmets and rifles.
Members of the public were not allowed to enter the courtroom during proceedings, with several additional police officers holding guard at each one of the courtroom's entrances.
Cupido wore a grey long-sleeved shirt and the rest of the accused were dressed in plain white T-shirts. They stared in front of them as prosecutor Mervin Menigo asked for the matter to be postponed.
Intricate tattoos of dice, poker cards and beads decorated Matthew's left arm. He winked at a female friend seated in the court gallery as he entered.
Menigo said Adams was arrested on Wednesday morning and asked for the case to be postponed.
He was unable to clarify the circumstances of Adams' arrest.
When Magistrate Goolam Bawa asked if any further arrests would take place which might delay court proceedings, Mervin said he was not aware of any.
"I've spoken to the investigating officer and there'll be no additional arrests," Mervin explained.
Cupido, 39, was arrested for Wainstein's murder in October and brothers Matthew, 27, and Sheldon, 31, were arrested the following month.
Wainstein, a convicted steroid smuggler who at one stage was on Interpol's wanted list and was previously found guilty in Ireland for selling illicit steroids worldwide, was shot several times in his Constantia home in August.
READ: International 'Steroid King' shot dead in Cape Town home in possible hit
At the time, News24 reported that two men allegedly got into Wainstein's home shortly before 01:00 on Friday, August 18, and went into his bedroom where they shot him several times.
He was in bed alongside his young child and wife, but they were not hit.
The murder is believed to be connected to several killings and shootings which have recently played out in Cape Town as an underworld battle over the nightclub security industry and illicit drug trade intensified.
In November, a cache of weapons, including ammunition, grenades, firearms and two military radios, were discovered at a storage facility in Kraaifontein and a residential property connected to the Breet brothers.
Magistrate Bawa postponed the matter to February 15 and 21 for a formal bail application.
The men remain in custody.
