There had been a number of cases where sheep were stolen in the Kingsley area, SA Police Service (SAPS) KwaZulu-Natal spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said in a statement.
The Dundee Crime Intelligence Unit was tasked to trace the perpetrators, he said.
In a joint operation on Friday night by the Dundee Crime Intelligence Unit, the Nquthu Stock Theft Unit, and Kingsley SAPS members, two suspects on horseback were observed between Blood River and Utrecht Road driving sheep to a police officer posing as a “buyer”.
The suspects were arrested as they approached the “buyer”, after they could not give a satisfactory explanation about the sheep. Eleven sheep were recovered and on further investigation it appeared that the sheep were stolen from farms in the Kingsley area on the same night.
The suspects’ horses were also impounded. They were charged with stock theft and would appear in the Utrecht Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Zwane said.