PRETORIA – A 35-year-old alleged kingpin has been nabbed for alleged involvement in the syndicate linked to the theft of fuel and damage to essential infrastructure which forms part of the national key point.
He was arrested on Wednesday, 19 October 2022 in Pretoria by a multidisciplinary team led by the Free State Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation team together with Bidvest Protea Coin Security, Gauteng Traffic Department Saturation Unit.
This follows further investigation into the arrest of two suspects aged between 35 and 41 on Saturday, 16 October 2022 for theft of fuel and tempering with the Transnet national pipeline in Vrede, Free State and were arrested on delivering the stolen fuel in Kromdraai, Witbank.
The duo, Mauro Aurelia Langa (41) , a Mozambique national and Solly Khoza (35) appeared in the Vrede Magistrates’ Court yesterday and are expected be back in court on the 24 October 2022. They were arrested by a multidisciplinary team comprised of the Hawks’ Non Ferrous Metals, Tactical Operations Management Section with Secunda and Middelburg based Serious Organised Crime Investigation assisted by Bidvest Protea Coin, Ekurhuleni District Operational Task Team, Badboyz Security and South African Revenue Services (SARS). Police seized the tanker with fuel which was involved on Saturday incident.
The alleged kingpin is expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrates court tomorrow and will later appear in Vrede with other suspects. It is now on public donain that almost 8.5 million litres of fuel, valued at aproximayely R102 million, has been stolen from national Transnet pipes in the last year.
There are 46 suspects arrest in the last three months owing to the multi-disciplinary approach operations which prove to be a working formula. Now with the additional three linked to this incident, we are sitting at total of 49 suspects arrested in the country.