Police have swooped on five smugglers in recent weeks and recovered 20 vehicles that they were plotting to move illegally across the Kosi Bay border into Mozambique.
South African Police Service (Saps) spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Amanda van Wyk, said the arrests were the work of a specialised task team that had been deployed to Emanguzi in northern KwaZulu-Natal to “deal decisively” with cross-border crimes in the region.
“In the past few weeks, police arrested five vehicle smugglers and recovered 20 vehicles of different makes, that include 11 bakkies, seven SUVs (sport utility vehicles), a minibus and a sedan during separate intelligence-driven operations,” said Van Wyk.
“Their investigation reveals that the recovered vehicles were stolen in and around Durban Central, Durban North, Westville, Chatsworth, Pinetown, and Umhlali.”
Van Wyk said during the latest takedown, the team followed up on information they had obtained on a vehicle that was destined to cross the Kosi Bay border.
The vehicle was successfully intercepted and one suspect, who was found to be in possession of fraudulent documents that would have been used to cross the border, was arrested.
“The preliminary investigation reveals that the suspect may be linked to vehicle insurance fraud. Investigations remain ongoing.”
Van Wyk said the specialised national intervention team, which includes SAPS members from crime intelligence, pro-active and reactive policing units and detectives, had been established to prevent and combat cross-border crimes along the northern border of KZN.
“These identified cross-border crimes include, among others, theft of motor vehicles, house robberies, business robberies, hijacking of vehicles, murder, and attempted murder.”
