LOCAL

Hawks’ spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Philani Nkwalase has called on the community of eMalahleni in Mpumalanga to report any suspicious activity around the Transnet fuel pipelines.

This follows a syndicate linked to the theft of fuel that has been damaging essential Transnet infrastructure. An alleged kingpin linked to Transnet fuel theft is expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

The Hawks arrested the 35-year-old suspect in Pretoria on Wednesday.

His arrest follows the weekend’s arrest of his employees, who were found in possession of petrol worth over R200 000. Police pounced on the unsuspecting 35-year-old kingpin, following a short visit to the SARS offices in Brooklyn Pretoria.

He was then flown to his plush property at Vosman in eMalahleni where a search and seizure operation ensued. According to the Hawks, over 100 million litres of petrol has been stolen in the past year from Transnet’s National Pipeline and 46 suspects have so far been arrested in the past three months.

Hawks nab suspected Transnet petrol kingpin:

Nkwalase says communities should help to bring to book those who are implicated.

“The alleged crime basically was damage to essential infrastructure where they siphoned out from the pipelines that are under the custodianship of Transnet and the fuel was about 8 000 litres was stolen which cost over R221 000. This syndicate is not the only one and we want to appeal to the society at large particular those who are living close to the pipeline, if there any suspicious vehicle or tankers stopped nowhere seemingly there would an activity, they must report instantly to the police because it might be people who are siphoning petrol from these pipelines.”

Source: SABC news