Wally Mbhele
A combined police and intelligence operation is closing in on the heist gangs and may see some of the masterminds behind the spate of cash-in-transit robberies nabbed soon.
Sources within both the intelligence and the safety and security departments this week dismissed claims by one of the alleged brains behind the heists, Collin Chauke, that senior police officers are involved in the robberies. They told the Mail & Guardian that Chauke’s claims were “nothing short of a propaganda campaign” aimed at derailing advanced police investigations from making an “imminent” breakthrough.
While they did not dismiss the possible involvement of a third force in the violent highway robberies, they maintained that Chauke’s claims were nothing more than a public relations exercise.
It is understood Chauke himself may be arrested within “a week or so”, as a team of special detectives is following leads on his hideouts in two provinces, including Gauteng.
While police and intelligence officers are working around the clock to uncover the identity of the mastermind behind the robberies, suspicions about them being linked to the former government’s third- force operatives are growing.
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki last year blamed the rising level of crime on the mushrooming of security companies under the directorship of former policemen linked to third-force activities.
Intelligence sources point to the Ferdi Barnard trial in Pretoria as a “typical example” of how the third force is capable of unleashing violence and blaming it on criminals. Among the charges Barnard is facing are sensational allegations of diamond heists.
Sources said the current pattern of heists has a similar modus operandi to that used by Barnard and other third-force operatives.