Fantasies 'like a Wilbur Smith novel'

Robert Charles de Bruin

A Zimbabwean drug dealer who claimed to be a gun-runner and special forces operative has been labelled a Wilbur Smith-style fantasist by police.

Robert Charles De Bruin was this week sentenced to 12 years in prison for his part in the sale and importation of millions of dollars of Ecstasy with former Mr Asia figure Darryl Sorby.

The comparisons with the African adventure yarns made famous by Smith in novels such as The Diamond Hunters came after De Bruin made claims of gun-running, diamond smuggling and counter-terrorism operations in the old white-ruled Southern Rhodesia.

De Bruin told one of the hearings he belonged to an anti-terrorist unit in the army of Ian Smith.

Weapons seized by the Government were sold to Third World countries for cash which, De Bruin said, he would bring back to Rhodesia in suitcases.

For his efforts, he was rewarded with a ranch. After the change of regime, De Bruin got a tipoff that his life was in danger and in 1987 decided to flee the country.

Friends who had served in his unit later managed to convert his property into 35 uncut diamonds, which were smuggled into New Zealand.

These claims formed part of De Bruin's defence, who said he unwittingly received the packing cases with the Ecstasy inside them thinking he was helping other white South Africans. However De Bruin's two former wives rejected his claims.

"His stories were like a Wilbur Smith novel," said Detective Stephen Peat. "In fact, they were actually better."