South Africa’s most wanted ATM suspect has been linked to nine ATM bombings across the country so far, police said on Wednesday.
Police spokesperson Captain Thulani Zwane said he had been linked to nine bombings in areas including Vereeniging and Soweto in Gauteng and northern KwaZulu-Natal.
”The suspect will be charged under the Explosives Act and we are hoping that this breakthrough will help us secure more arrests,” Zwane said.
The man was arrested on the N3 freeway between Johannesburg and Durban late on Monday.
A superintendent from Durban’s Organised Crime Unit, working on the case, said they received information after two ATM bombings were reported in Gauteng on Monday morning.
”We were told that this suspect had just blown up two ATMs — one in Vereeniging and the other in Soweto — and was planning to flee to Durban,” he said, refusing to be named.
The unit, in collaboration with crime intelligence members, then traced and apprehended him on the N3 freeway near Durban.
”We are just glad for the breakthrough. We had been trying to trace this suspect for the past three months and this tip off yielded the success,” he said.
He is expected to appear in court on Friday. — Sapa