Four men have been arrested in the Bedfordview area after members of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) found stripped motorbikes in bases of beds which were en route to neighbouring Mozambique.
The EMPD’s northern task team officers detained the four men, between the ages of 35 and 37, for possession of suspect stolen goods.
Spokesperson for the EMPD, Lieutenant Colonel Kelebogile Thepa said the four men travelling in the vehicle transporting the stolen motorbikes were cooperative when their car was searched.
“During the crime prevention operation, EMPD officers received a lookout that, there was an active installed tracking device moving from Gilloolys interchange towards the N12 freeway in Bedfordview area,” Thepa said.
“Not long, officers spotted and approached the said white Isuzu single cab light delivery vehicle towing a trailer, on the N12 freeway by Tom Jones offramp, in Benoni area with four cooperative male occupants including the driver,” she said.
“The bakkie was inspected and when the trailer was about to be searched, the four became restless and indicated to officers that, they transport goods for people on request, usually from Johannesburg to Mozambique.”
In the heavily packed trailer, EMPD officers found half-stripped motorcycles, two bed bases loaded with two motorcycles parts, and one motorbike hidden in a plastic bathtub.
Thepa said the recovered motorbikes and the parts are worth R200,000 and the four men “gave a faint explanation and there were no official documents to back-up their story”.
Police said the different motorcycle parts were tested, and they were positively identified as stolen and reported at the Silverton police station in Tshwane.
The four men were arrested and detained for possession of suspected stolen goods, at the Benoni police station and Thepa said “all the necessary stakeholders” were summoned to the crime scene.
The accused men are expected to appear to appear in court on an unspecified date.
On Wednesday, police in Mpumalanga said a taxi driver, Nhlanhla Mkhabela was remanded in custody after his brief appearance before the Nkomazi Magistrate's Court on charges of possession of stolen property in Mpumalanga.
Mkhabela was arrested while driving a taxi full of passengers last week, after a tracking company alerted police about the signal of a stolen trailer which was picked up on the N4 at Malelane.
The trailer was allegedly stolen in Johannesburg, according to Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala.
“Police intercepted the taxi. When the trailer was searched, police made a shocking discovery when it was found loaded with a corpse in the coffin,” said Mohlala.
According to information from police, the deceased person was eventually transported to Mozambique for burial.
IOL