Cape Town - Police are investigating whether there is a link between cellphones stolen during the recent spate of mall robberies and a man with 48 cellphones who was arrested earlier this week at Cape Town International Airport.
The man was arrested on Tuesday and police found the phones and a laptop among other electronic goods in his luggage. Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk confirmed that some of the confiscated cellphones had been reported stolen and that police were investigating the possibility of a link to the cellphone store robbery sprees across the country.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has emerged as the likely destination for many of the electronic devices stolen from the malls, according to the police.
“The service providers have confirmed that the majority of the (stolen) items are activated in Nigeria,” Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale said.
“The recipients use courier services to send the items to Nigeria.”
Gauteng and the Western Cape have been hardest hit by the series of armed robberies at malls over the last few months. Most of the loot that robbers made off with was electronic devices, especially cellphones.
On Saturday Makgale said that an ongoing police investigation had identified that there were several groups involved.
“The groups aren’t necessarily collaborating, but some of them have common individual members: In other words, you find one person involved with two or three groups.”
Makgale said that on Saturday a man was arrested in KwaZulu-Natal in connection with the mall robberies.
He said police investigations had already linked four people previously arrested in separate incidents, to eight other cases.
A recently established task team, which included crime intelligence officials as well as representatives from Vodacom, Cell-C, MTN and Telkom, was currently looking at 18 incidents related to mall robberies.
“We are very close to more arrests,” Makgale said.
He said preventative measures, including police patrols at shopping centres, had been put in place.
Canal Walk chief executive Gavin Wood admitted the mall robberies were a major concern. Armed robbers have hit Canal Walk three times in two weeks, including robbing a cellphone shop and a jewellery store. The mega-centre is planning to beef up security with perimeter fencing and tactical response vehicles.
“We have increased our security personnel and deployed more undercover guards. We will be introducing further technology, which includes CCTV and other security infrastructure,” Wood said, adding that security staff were also conducting random stop-and-searches at entrances.
Canal Walk’s management has already met police and will be meeting Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.
l Meanwhile, police arrested four armed robbers minutes after they hit a KFC outlet in Brackenfell on Friday night.
Kraaifontein police station Commander Brigadier Gerda van Niekerk said a staff member alerted a customer at the drive-through section and the customer called the police.
The suspects fired a shot inside the store when the store manager refused to open the safe. The suspects grabbed cash and fled in a Toyota Quantum van. Police gave chase and, with the help of a local security company, arrested the suspects and seized two firearms.
Van Niekerk said she was inspired by the co-operation between police and the local community which had led to the arrests.
Weekend Argus