Johannesburg - Petrol stations around Soweto were used as informal car dealerships with cars worth hundreds of thousands of rand being sold off for as little as R7 000 a car by a rental-car hijacking syndicate.
Targeting rental cars, mostly from Budget Car Hire, members of the syndicate allegedly scouted the cars at off-ramps into Soweto during peak hour traffic and then followed them.
Drivers would be accosted as they opened the gates to their homes or while offloading luggage from vehicles, once they reached their destinations.
At gunpoint, the alleged ring members would then tell their victims not to die for vehicles they do not own. One person was killed.
Elias Oupa Khumalo - one of their own who has since turned State witness - told the police that the gang, which operated mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, would remove spare wheels before selling the hijacked vehicles to use the money to buy petrol for their next hijacking mission.
To arrest the gang, police registered Project Vigour in 2013 and on April 19 that year, officers requested authorisation in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 to make use of agents who bought vehicles from seven of the gang members, who had already been identified.
Not knowing that their potential clients were officers, syndicate members allegedly called them once they had hijacked a vehicle.
A meeting was then arranged - mostly at an Engen service station in Ngubo Street, Zola North - where the cars were sold for between R7 000 and R10 000.
The suspects were to appear in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge on Monday.
All but one of them have previous convictions for crimes ranging from rape to attempted murder and murder.
The Star