Seven suspects, including a warrant officer attached to the Makhado Crime Intelligence Unit in Limpopo, will appear before the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court soon on charges of business robbery and possession of suspected stolen properties.

Police spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba says the suspects allegedly robbed a convenience store at a filling station along the N1 near the Capricorn Plaza toll gate in the early hours of Monday morning.

“A group of suspects entered the premises at about 03:00 and held the staff at gunpoint. They thereafter fled the scene with a drop-in safe containing an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes in a white bakkie and a sedan,” his statement reads.

Ledwaba says the police were quick to respond and a well-coordinated, intelligence-driven operation was conducted which led to the arrest of the suspects at various locations yesterday.

“The 36-year-old female employee of the filling station was arrested at her workplace while a further probe implicated more suspects and the 52-year-old warrant officer was apprehended at his workplace. The rest of the suspects were arrested at their homes in the Shayadima location and Mphephu.”

During the arrest, a drop-in safe, various packets of cigarettes and the vehicles positively linked to the robbery were confiscated.

Limpopo police commissioner Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe says prompt arrests like this should send a clear message that ‘the police will be relentless in bringing all perpetrators to book, regardless of their status’.