Task team follows the smoke trail
Local crime prevention and security experts worked closely with other units following a tip-off about a planned hit on a cigarette delivery truck in the Dundee area.
A massive bust has resulted in 10 arrests and the recovery of thousands of cigarettes.
Local crime prevention and security experts worked closely with other units, including Durban Crime Intelligence (DCI) and SAPS Durban’s Commercial Crimes Unit (DCCU), following a tip-off about a planned hit on a cigarette delivery truck in the Dundee area.
Crime fighters, including Mornè Potgieter, followed the trail for about a month.
However, things did not go entirely according to plan for the team, with the cigarette delivery truck targeted a day earlier than anticipated, on April 2.
“Three suspects in a Volkswagen Polo pulled up next to the truck and forced it off the road, hijacking it at gunpoint. The driver and a crew member were taken hostage,” explains Potgieter.
He says the suspects took the vehicle and the two occupants to a nearby settlement, where they were joined by eight more suspects in a Toyota Quantum, who helped unload the truck of its contents.
The truck was then abandoned and the driver and crew member with it.
A combined operational team comprised of DCI, DCCU, Tactical Response Team (TRT) Ladysmith, Newcastle SAPS’ K9 Unit, oSizweni Visible Policing (VISPOL) Unit, the Amajuba Cluster Task Team and the Ithemba Security Tracing Team, set up an ambush along the suspects’ route and struck as they passed by, en route to a safe house.
“The stock was recovered and 10 suspects were arrested.”
In the suspects’ possession, Potgieter adds, was an AK47 with 32 rounds of live ammunition, two handguns with 26 rounds of live ammunition, a mobile signal jammer and hundreds of packs and cartons of branded cigarettes.
These items were seized as evidence, and a forensic investigation was undertaken.
“The suspects were detained ahead of a court appearance in Dannhauser [last week]. The estimated value of the stock is between R200 000 and R250 000,” concludes Potgieter.
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