Copper cable syndicate smashed
Tshwane metro police special team make a huge bust on copper cables in Onderstepoort.
A syndicate trading in stolen copper cable has been smashed in Onderstepoort, North of Pretoria, a reliable source said on Monday.
Copper cable worth R2 million were seized by the special project team of the Tshwane metro police in a raid on Friday. The cable, property of the metro, was apparently illegally booked out by a crooked official.
The team had been tipped off that a plot in Onderstepoort had received drums of cable and were about to strip them. When being transported, the cable is usually wrapped around a wooden pulley, called a drum.
When the team arrived at the plot on Thursday, it found drums but no copper cable. Members decided to keep an eye on the plot.
“On the same day, other members of the team visited a Pretoria North scrapyard owned by the people staying at the plot,” said the source.
The source said members staked out at the plot on Thursday evening after being told the cable would be removed that night. But nothing happened.
“Part of the special team visited the scrapyard again on Friday morning. It searched for copper but none was found and they went back to the plot in Onderstepoort,” said the source.
When they arrived, the owner appeared and eventually let them inside. He told project team members the drums on the plot were bought by his brother for storage.
“On the plot four, big drums without cable were found along with five smaller ones full of cable used for providing electricity to homes,” said the source.
The owner of the Pretoria North scrapyard, who also stayed at the plot, thereupon confessed that he sold stolen copper cable to another scrapyard in Bon Accord.
His accomplices — the buyer, a metro official who booked out the cables, a truck driver and a middle man — were then called to the plot.
They were all arrested on the plot.
“At the scrapyard in Bon Accord it was found that the cables were already shipped to the buyer’s head office in Ga-Rankuwa and was sold to another company in Germiston,” the source said.
The first scrap metal owner is believed to have sold two batches of copper — 1145kg and 1065kg — which actually belong to the Tshwane metro.
Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba declined to comment.
Also read:
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