Hawks launch Gateway jewel heist investigation
The Hawks believe the men arrested on North Coast Road at the weekend were behind last week’s Narandas Jewellers heist.
IT is believed that the gang of four armed suspects arrested on North Coast Road on Saturday were behind a series of robberies in the Durban area, including the Narandas Jewellers heist at Gateway last week, said the Hawk’s provincial spokesperson, Simphiwe Mhlongo.
Earlier today, the Northglen News reported that a tip-off led to the arrest of the would-be thieves, who were reportedly en route to rob a jewellery store in Musgrave.
Mhlongo confirmed that Hawks members arrested Sicelo Ntanzi, Mxolisi Sibeko, Siyabonga Magagula and Holisizwe Mlazi at a service station on North Coast Road on Saturday morning, after they were searched and found to be in possession of four 9mm unlicensed firearms. The men appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
According to Mhlongo, the same modus operandi was used in a series of business and home robberies in the area, including the Narandas jewellery shop at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping, where they snatched an undisclosed number of jewels, and the Beverly Jewellers heist at The Pavilion, where suspects fired several shots as they fled the centre.
“In all of these cases the men wore balaclavas to hide their face. There were always four suspects, some with a fifth as the getaway driver, matching the description of the arrested suspects,” he said.
He said they were working with evidence collected from the scenes to link the suspects to the cases. The men are set to reappear in court on Friday.
