A multidisciplinary team has been lauded by National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola for the arrest of six persons suspected to be part of a network terrorising Gauteng business owners.
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, a spokesperson for the South African Police Service, said that the squad, comprised of multiple sections led by Crime Intelligence Officers and Organised Crime members, has been conducting surveillance on the syndicate and has already connected them to more than 16 cases.
These are province-based kidnappings where ransom demands were made.
“In a takedown operation on Thursday morning, the team led by the Special Task Force (STF) and hostage negotiators conducted operations at various identified addresses in Gauteng including Jeppe, Helderwyk, Brackenhurst and Daveyton,” said Mathe.
She said that during the operation, an abducted businessman from 7 January 2023 was successfully freed and reunited with his family.
“At these premises, police also seized five high performance powered vehicle’s including two BMW’s, two Mercedes Benz sedans and one Toyota Urban Cruiser.
“Twenty cellphones and 30 portable GPS tracking devices are also among the items seized by the team,” she said.
Masemola said in his statement that police continue to penetrate and catch individuals responsible for the country’s surge of kidnappings.
“Our message is clear: the SAPS is coming for all criminals, either they make our lives easy by handing themselves in or we fetch them ourselves”.
In a separate incident on Wednesday afternoon, Sandton police detained a Tanzanian man for drugs possession and sales.
“Police were acting on intelligence driven information when they found the suspect in possession of 500g of crystal meth and 1 kg of Heroine at an upmarket hotel in Sandton,” reads the statement.
»Police arrests alleged kidnappers business owner in Gauteng«