Witbank Trio Crime and two security companies followed a lead of information about an operation that was allegedly going on for a long time and growing bigger in the process.
On August 7 at about 03:00 Witbank Trio Crime took their positions at various posts to try and corner the group of suspects, who were allegedly going to make a big break from a mine in the area. About 45 minutes later the first set of suspects was captured by the task force and detained, while the rest were allegedly still on their way.
At about 06:15 the last group of suspects was arrested and detained after they had loaded thousands of litres of diesel onto two taxis, one belonging to a local businessman within the taxi industry, and a Kia bakkie. The arrest was made when the suspects tried to leave the premises after loading the vehicles with more than 2500 litres of diesel.
It is alleged that the diesel theft has been going on for a long period, according to Witbank Trio Crimes. It has also come to the attention of Witbank Trio Crime that the theft of the diesel was an inside job and six security guards, who were arrested on August 7, are involved in the syndicate. Another local company was allegedly also reported to be involved in the syndicate and they too are under investigation.
The arrested suspects appeared in Middelburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, August 13.
