'CUPIDO WAS FIRST STOP'

Court hears bank boss has high-level links to global cocaine dealers

- BY KIM SWARTZ

A SUSPENDED bank manager and his co-accused have been blasted as “first receivers” for international drug cartels.

Raed Cupido, 40, was arrested on 10 June with 115 bricks of cocaine worth an estimated street value of R18 million, an AK-103 Rifle, Uzi Pro Rifle, five semiautomatic firearms and 130 rounds of ammunition inside a storage unit in Roeland Street.

His alleged accomplice, Christopher Carlese, 38, was nabbed on 13 July, but he claims he wasn't at the scene that day and was chilling at his home in Kensington.

The accused were back in the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Friday to apply for bail, but instead the court heard that police officials have video footage, firearm links, and forensic evidence tying both manne to the stash.