{"id":4761,"date":"2013-06-05T06:26:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T06:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4761"},"modified":"2013-06-05T06:49:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T06:49:27","slug":"top-cops-bust-for-huge-heists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4761","title":{"rendered":"Top cops bust for huge heists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Crime intelligence policemen – some of whom have the country’s highest security clearances – have been arrested after being linked to deadly cash-in-transit heists involving millions.<\/p>\n

The arrests, including that of a senior officer said to be the mastermind behind the heists and bank robberies, have again cast the spotlight on the infamous police unit and raised yet more concerns about the state of policing.<\/div>\n

The arrests of two crime intelligence officers brings to an end a three-year undercover operation.<\/p>\n

Four other crime intelligence officers are being investigated and three civilians have been arrested.<\/p>\n

The operation mounted against the officers – whose jobs included the assessment of threats to the state – was led by the Hawks and involved the cooperation of cash-management companies.<\/p>\n

The policemen are believed to have planned some of the biggest cash heists in South Africa.<\/p>\n

According to police sources, the arrested officers were believed to have been planning what would have been one of South Africa’s biggest heists, on heavily guarded trucks transporting cash and gold bullion to the Reserve Bank, in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The police breakthrough came after a crime intelligence captain known as ”Mr KGB” was arrested on Saturday night near the Durban beachfront, hours before he was to have competed in the Comrades Marathon.<\/p>\n

The officer – the ringleader, according to police and cash-in-transit company sources – was wanted in connection with an attack on a Protea Coin cash-in-transit van in the Free State town of Sasolburg in February. In all, R3-million was stolen and none of it has been recovered.<\/p>\n

Another officer was arrested last week.<\/p>\n

The two will appear in the Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court tomorrow along with three other men wanted for a spate of armed robberies that claimed several lives.<\/p>\n

Police sources said yesterday that the arrested officers’ jobs involved intelligence gathering and threat assessments of attacks on cash-in-transit trucks and on vehicles carrying gold or platinum.<\/p>\n

Senior police officers said the heads of cash-management companies and the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, were scheduled to meet later this week to discuss the implications of the arrest of officers with top security clearances.<\/p>\n

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko confirmed the policemen’s arrests on armed robbery and attempted murder charges.<\/p>\n

He would not say whether more police officers faced arrest.<\/p>\n

“The case is sensitive. We cannot elaborate on what had [been] or is being planned.<\/p>\n

“What I can say is that the policemen allegedly used their work knowledge, which involved security assessments, to commit crime,” Ramaloko said. – timeslive.co.za<\/p>\n

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Crime intelligence policemen – some of whom have the country’s highest security clearances – have been arrested after being linked to deadly cash-in-transit heists involving millions. The arrests, including that of a senior officer said to be the mastermind behind the heists and bank robberies, have again cast the spotlight on the infamous police unit … Continue reading “Top cops bust for huge heists”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2875,219,2061],"class_list":["post-4761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-cash-heists","tag-corruption","tag-sapd"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/heist.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}