A Congolese couple was arrested in Springs, on the East Rand, on Tuesday for possession of explosives and detonators worth about R1.5 million, the Hawks said.
“These devices are normally used during ATM bombings and illegal mining,” Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said.
“The team also confiscated gold concentrates, platinum concentrates, pyrobor chemicals as well as mercury and smelting apparatus,” he said.
The two would appear in the Springs Magistrate’s Court on Friday. – Sapa
Two people were arrested for running a “black dollar scam” in Cape Town on Tuesday, said police.
A man complained to the police that he gave three Congolese men a large number of bank notes, believing they would convert them to dollars and multiply them, said Captain Frederick Van Wyk.
However, he was left with pieces of paper dyed black while they took his money, supposedly to buy the chemicals needed to wash the new “money”, which they claimed had been dyed to avoid detection by customs officials.
Police found two men in Maitland in possession of blank pieces of paper used to trick people into participating in the scam, said Van Wyk.
The men, aged 28 and 41, were arrested and would appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on fraud charges. The third man was still at large. – Sapa
