Police smash suspected kidnapping and truck hijacking syndicate

Mpumalanga police, acting on information from a tracking company, have smashed a suspected truck hijacking and kidnapping syndicate in eMpumelelweni, near KwaMhlanga, north east of Pretoria, and uncovered what is believed to be a storage facility for the stolen trucks.

The team found a stolen truck loaded with a cargo of body lotion, a trailer with a load of oranges, containers stolen in Gauteng, two truck trailers of which – one Frontliner horse still hooked to 2-side dipper trailers.

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Police, together with private security and Tracker Connect, struck on Monday afternoon and arrested five suspects, including a 16-year-old teenager, in an operation that lasted until the early hours of Tuesday.

This after police were alerted by the tracking company about a trailer stolen last Friday and kept somewhere in the area.

According to provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, the team mobilised their resources and upon arrival, found the five people in what looked like a big workshop with suspected stolen trailers-including two blue Taute Liner Superlink trailers.

The loot

He said the trailers were loaded with aqueous cream body lotions, with preliminary information indicating that the trailers were hijacked in Boksburg North in Gauteng’s East Rand on Friday.

Mohlala said the team also discovered that the horse had already been unhooked from the trailers and could not be located.

The two containers were allegedly stolen during a business robbery at City Deep in Cleveland and Heidelberg respectively in Gauteng.

“One Frontliner horse was still hooked to two-side tipper trailers. It was also established that the vehicle engine numbers were tampered with. They further found an 8-ton Man truck which was loaded with the Aqueous cream body lotions suspected to have been stolen from the recovered hijacked truck, two empty drop side trailers, five empty flatbed trailers of which one was half loaded with oranges. The team also realised that some of these recovered items have already been tampered with,” Mohlala explained.

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Suspects from Mozambique and Zimbabwe

He said the preliminary investigation has revealed that two of the arrested suspects are Mozambican nationals and three are Zimbabweans.

Mohlala said police were working in collaboration with the department of Home Affairs to ascertain their status in the country, saying should it be found that they do not possess legal documentation to be in South Africa, further charges with regard to contravention of the Immigration Act will be added.

He said the suspects were expected to appear in the Kwamhlanga Magistrate’s Court on charges of possession of suspected stolen properties and could possibly be linked with a number of hijacking incidents as well as robberies and kidnapping incidents.

The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela said criminals should think twice before coming to Mpumalanga.

“We will continue to disrupt their activities and we urge the public to inform us if they have information about similar activities” she said.

This comes barely a week after Mpumalanga police arrested a 45-year-old man moments after he and accomplices allegedly hijacked a white Isuzu truck carrying R127 000 worth of alcohol beverages.

Costly loot

The incident occurred on the morning of 5 September, near Hazyview, but the suspect was swiftly nabbed few minutes later at Marite outside Hazyview.

Police said the delivery crew was driving along R40 road on their official trip from Hazyview to Nelspruit.

They were accosted by a group of about three armed men opposite Numbi Park in Kiepersol and forced to stop.

They were then locked in the back of the truck while the suspects transferred their cargo into a silver Mahindra bakkie before fleeing the scene, leaving their victims behind with the truck.

Police spotted the bakkie at Jim Brown but the two suspects fled. However, one was cornered and arrested, with the duo believed to also be part of the syndicate.

According to fleet management firm Landmark Tracking, South Africa has seen a worrying trend of hijackings in recent times.

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The firm said this type of crime is not only terrifying for the victims, but also very costly, with the average hijacking costing a business more than R240 000 and costs to the economy amounting to a staggering R3 billion per year.

The most targeted cargo includes electronics, household appliances, tyres, cigarettes, liquor, fuel and even groceries.