Potchefstroom: Three suspects aged 25, 27 and 30 are expected to appear in the Mmabatho Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 18 March 2019 for car-jacking, robbery aggravating and kidnapping.
The suspects’ court appearance follows their arrest on Thursday, 14 March 2019, by Mahikeng Flying Squad and Cluster Trio Task Team in Mothibistad in the Northern Cape.
The police have been working tirelessly since cases of car-jacking, robbery aggravating and kidnapping were reported to ensure that the suspects are brought to book. It is alleged that the suspects targeted and hijacked vehicles with Botswana registration numbers that entered the country mostly through Ramatlabama Port of Entry. The crimes were committed between September 2018 and March 2019 in the policing precincts of Mahikeng, Itsoseng, Lichtenburg, Setlagole and Zeerust.
According to information available at this stage, reports suggest that upon committing these crimes, the suspects used a blue light and posed either as traffic or police officers to stop unsuspecting victims. The suspects would then take the victims’ vehicles before robbing them of their cash and other valuables including bank cards. In some instances, the victims were coerced to disclose their bank cards’ Personal Information Number (PIN) codes. The latter would then be used to withdraw cash from the victims’ accounts.
Since Wednesday, 23 January 2019 to date and as part of the operation to trace, arrest and link the suspects with the cases, the police recovered 24 hijacked vehicles. Of these vehicles, 21 were recovered in Mahikeng while the other three were recovered at Seweding village, Kuruman including the one which was found in possession of one of the suspects. The police also recovered laptops and cell phones belonging to the victims.
Investigation into the matter including the possibility of linking the suspects to other cases is underway.
Meanwhile, a provincial suspect raiding operation conducted between Wednesday, 13 and Thursday, 14 March 2019, resulted in the arrest of 327 suspects for various offences.
The suspects include 153 that were arrested for assault with intent to do Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) and assault common as well as 48 that were held for crimes against women and children. The suspects were arrested at all seven policing clusters in the province.