Cape Town – A syndicate of four alleged hijackers was arrested in Blackheath last week after the Flying Squad, using information from a vehicle tracking device, followed the coordinates of a truck belonging to a Somali businessman who was hijacked in Ravensmead.
Police seized eight vehicles from the Blackheath property, which included a VW Caddy that was hijacked in Elsies River in November 2016 and a Kia 1.3 ton truck that was hijacked in Klapmuts earlier this month.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said: “Copies of fake police identity certificates, police reflector jackets, blue lights, computer equipment used for reproducing police IDs and an unlicensed firearm were also seized.”
Hailed as a “breakthrough in curbing hijackings in the province”, Rwexana said the four suspects, two men and two women aged between 30 and 40 years, will appear in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on various charges including hijacking and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Rwexana said that in Nyanga, the Flying Squad had arrested three suspected hijackers in possession of a Toyota which was hijacked in Khayelitsha on Tuesday.
The vehicle had been parked outside the suspect’s house and his arrest led to two more arrests in Kosovo and Samora Machel.
On Friday night, Mayco member for social services and security JP Smith said: “I joined the Gang and Drug Task Team and Stabilisation Unit on an operation to make sure Manenberg and Hanover Park were quiet. It was a high visibility patrol with stop-and-searches, backed up by targeted intelligence-driven operations.”
He said Hanover Park, Tambo Village and Manenberg had all been quiet with no gang gunfire.
The only gunfire had come from police who fired two warning shots during an arrest. A total of 11 arrests had been made, all on drug charges.
In a week of drug busts, Rwexana said a 39-year-old man had been arrested following a tip-off that drugs were being sold in Langeberg Street, Hillview.
A police search had found one large packet of tik and 14 small packets of tik, with an estimated street value of R8 000, and an undisclosed amount of cash.
“Our investigation into a shooting incident that occurred on January 22, 2016 at Dahlia Street, Scottsville, Kraaifontein, where four people were shot and wounded while standing on the street, yielded results when two suspects were arrested on Monday."
“Police followed up information received from the community and arrested two men aged 18 and 20,” said Rwexana.
In Nyanga, a 24-year-old man was arrested last week for the alleged rape of a six-year-old girl who had been left in his care at Samora Machel Informal Settlement on January 17.