THE Hawks arrested a 35-year-old alleged kingpin on Wednesday, 19 October in Pretoria.
This is for his alleged involvement in a syndicate linked to the theft of fuel and damage to essential infrastructure.
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Philani Nkwalase, the man was nabbed by a multidisciplinary team led by the Free State Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation team together with Bidvest Protea Coin Security and Gauteng’s Traffic Department Saturation Unit.
“This follows further investigation into the arrest of two suspects on Saturday, 16 October for theft of fuel and tampering with the Transnet national pipeline in Vrede, Free State. They were arrested on delivering the stolen fuel in Kromdraai, Witbank,” said Nkwalase.
He said that the duo, Mauro Aurelia Langa (41) and Solly Khoza (35), appeared in the Vrede Magistrates Court on Tuesday, 18 October and are expected be back in court on 24 October.
“They were arrested by a multidisciplinary team comprised of the Hawks’ Non Ferrous Metals, Tactical Operations Management Section, with the Secunda and Middelburg based Serious Organised Crime Investigation team, assisted by Bidvest Protea Coin, Ekurhuleni District Operational Task Team, Badboyz Security and the South African Revenue Services.
“Police seized the tanker with fuel which was involved in the Saturday incident,” he said.
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Nkwalase said that the alleged kingpin is expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrates court on Thursday and will later appear in Vrede with other suspects.
“It is now in the public domain that almost 8,5 million litres of fuel, valued at approximately R102 million, has been stolen from national Transnet pipes in the last year. There have been 46 suspects arrested in the last three months owing to the multidisciplinary approach operations which prove to be a working formula. Now with the additional three linked to this incident, we are sitting at total of 49 suspects arrested in the country,” said Nkwalase.
