LIMPOPO – Seven suspects, including a warrant officer attached to the Makhado Crime Intelligence Unit, will appear before the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court soon on charges of business robbery and possession of suspected stolen properties.
Police spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said the suspects robbed a convenience store at a filling station along the N1 near the Capricorn Plaza toll gate in the early hours of Monday morning (December 5).
“A group of suspects entered the premises at about 03:00 and held the staff at gunpoint. They thereafter fled the scene with a drop-in safe containing an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes in a white bakkie and a sedan,” his statement read.
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Ledwaba said the police were quick to respond and a well-coordinated, intelligence driven operation was conducted which led to the arrest of the suspects at different locations on Tuesday (December 6).
“The 36-year-old female employee of the filling station was arrested at her workplace while a further probe implicated more suspects and the 52-year-old warrant officer was apprehended at his workplace. The rest of the suspects were arrested at their homes in the Shayadima location and Mphephu.”
During the arrest, a drop-in safe, packets of cigarettes of various brands and the vehicles positively linked to the robbery were confiscated.
The provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe said prompt arrests like this should send a clear message that the police will be relentless in bringing all perpetrators to book, regardless of their status.