Tangeni Amupadhi
ESCAPED gangster Joshua Rabotapi was reunited with his thumb and parts of his fingers this week after he was arrested at his luxury home in one of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs.
Police say Rabotapi lost his digits in a shoot-out with police during a robbery in 1994 in which three people were killed. The gang escaped with a large cash haul.
And police got Rabotapi’s fingers and, more importantly, their prints.
Forensic tests later connected the fingerprints to a string of other crimes.
Rabotapi (28) is allegedly the leader of a gang whose members were described by police spokesman Captain Jan Combrink as ”the cream of the crop” among criminals.
He said the arrest brought detectives closer to eliminating one of the most notorious crime groups in the country.
The gang, which goes by the name of its illustrious leader, recruits only criminals on the police’s ”most wanted” list.
Rabotapi himself was listed among the country’s top criminals.
Police believe the gang’s main reason for recruiting the most sought after criminals was to make it difficult for members to betray each other to law enforcers.
Rabotapi was arrested and held for a short time last year, but managed to escape from police custody.
This week the elite organised crime unit, which infiltrated the gang last year, arrested Rabotapi at his home in Sandown, Johannesburg. Most members of the syndicate have been nabbed over the past year.
Combrink said police timed the arrest of Rabotapi to ensure there was no violence involved. ”He was leading a normal life and not like a a fugitive. And the unit just got good information where to get him. We had to make sure that this guy is brought to court, so we had to get him clean,” said Combrink.
Rabotapi appeared in court this week, charged with robbery, three counts of murder and two of attempted murder.
Combrink said police were investigating an additional 16 murders, 30 robberies involving R17-million, money which was stolen mainly from banks, and a string of other charges against Rabotapi.