Johannesburg -
They are the playboys of the criminal underworld. They drive BMWs and Mercedes Benz, wear designer clothes - and hunt in Gauteng’s shopping malls.
In the past month, these dangerous gangs of armed robbers have pounced on 11 malls across the province. But their main target, it seems, has taken the police by surprise - cellphone stores.
“We’re worried that in nearly 95 percent of the cases, cellphones were the target and cash is minimal,” Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Lesetja Mothiba stated this week.
“The question is, where are these cellphones going?”
The police, he says, need to uncover how these phones are still being used after they have been blacklisted.
It’s easy enough, explains tech expert Arthur Goldstuck. “They’re part of organised syndicates and have the access to technology to unlock the devices,” he explains. “You can take a stolen phone to places like China Mall, and shops in Fordsburg and they will unlock it for you.
“It’s not difficult to gain the expertise. You have the guys stealing the phones, selling to the middleman who unlock the phones and then they are sold on to the end users, to the black market.”
In South Africa, he says, “there is some demand” for the gadgets and devices, but “every African country where there is a growing market for smartphones would be a target”.
It’s a problem that has “been around for some time” but the industry simply hasn’t addressed it, he believes. “There hasn’t been a great emphasis on rendering phones useless because cellphone companies always benefit from people having to replace their phones.
“What we’re seeing with the iStore is that it’s the only chain that has specifically warned the public that stolen phones will be blocked.”
Dr Graham Wright, the head of the Consumer Goods Crime Risk Initiative, is worried by the dramatic increase in cellphone-related robberies of retailers.
Rudolph Zinn, a former detective, and a policing expert at Unisa, reveals that it was foreseen several years ago that criminal syndicates would migrate to malls from committing hijackings, home robberies and ATM bombings as these targets have “hardened”.
“Even if they are confronted after committing a robbery, the response from the police and security would be not to return shots because of the danger to the public.”
What is a surprise is that the police’s crime intelligence unit “didn’t see this coming”, he says. “It’s disappointing that they were not collecting information on the syndicates and being proactive in recruiting informers and agents. They are dysfunctional in that sense.”
The police have stationed Nyalas at several hard-hit malls, but Zinn responds, “You need to identify the people involved in these crimes.”
Saturday Star