By Augustine Ehikioya
Fighting crimes in South Africa, Police officials have bursted a syndicate group terrorizing business owners in Gauteng Province.
In the process, six kidnapping suspects have been arrested while a businessman was rescued.
The team also recovered five luxury vehicles and thirty GPS Tracking Devices.
This was contained in a statement issued by Brigadier Athlenda Mathe of the South African Police Service, Office of the National Commissioner, which was made available to Security Watch Africa (SWA).
It reads “The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), General Fannie Masemola has commended a multidisciplinary team for the arrest of six men believed to be part of a syndicate that has been terrorizing business owners in Gauteng.
“The team consisting of various units led by Crime Intelligence Officers, and Organised Crime members have been conducting surveillance on the syndicate and have already linked them to more than 16 cases of kidnappings where ransom demands were being made in the Gauteng Province.
“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.’
It went on “A businessman, who was kidnapped on 07 January 2023, was successfully rescued from one of the premises 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 cellphone’s and thirty portable GPS tracking devices are also among the items seized by the team,” it said.
The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola, according to the statement, maintained that the Police will continue to infiltrate and apprehend those behind the spate of kidnappings in the country.
“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”.
It added “In another unrelated incident, Sandton Police arrested a Tanzanian National for possession and dealing in drugs on Wednesday afternoon.
“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.”