A ZIMBABWEAN employed as a hearse driver was on Sunday
arrested at the South African side of the Beitbridge Border Post for allegedly
smuggling explosives worth R700 800.
The lone man, aged 30, had somehow negotiated his
contraband through the Zimbabwean side, raising security concerns, when he was
arrested by alert South African Police Service (SAPS) details.
“A week after arresting two suspects at Beitbridge Border
Post for the smuggling of illicit cigarettes hidden in a petrol tanker, members
of the South African Police Service deployed at the same border post have
apprehended a 30-year-old suspect this afternoon, for smuggling explosives into
the country, using a funeral undertaker’s vehicle,” SAPS Limpopo province
spokesman Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said in a statement.
“Members were again busy with their routine duties at the
border post when a vehicle branded with the name of funeral parlour, from
Johannesburg in Gauteng province, approached towing a trailer.
“The vehicle was searched together with its trailer and the
police found 306 units of blasting cartridges and four rims of detonating cord
estimated at R700 800. The explosives were hidden in the trailer. The lone
driver was immediately arrested,” he said.
“The suspect, who is a foreign national, will appear in
Musina Magistrate court soon on a charge of smuggling and possession of
explosives.”
Many others Zimbabweans, including some Beitbridge
residents, have in the past been arrested in the neighbouring country on
similar charges that attract a 25-year-jail term in that country.
The explosives are believed to be those later used in
blasting cash-in-transit vans during heists and exploding static automated
teller machines, two common crimes in South Africa. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment