Suspected kingpin of fuel theft syndicate arrested

A man alleged to be a kingpin of a fuel theft syndicate which has stolen fuel worth R102m from Transnet was arrested on Wednesday.

The fuel theft syndicate is also accused of damaging infrastructure forming part of the national key point as they made away with approximately 8.5-million litres of fuel from national Transnet pipes in the past year.

The 35-year-old was arrested in Pretoria by a multidisciplinary team led by the Free State Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation along with private security firm Bidvest Protea Coin and the Gauteng Traffic Department saturation unit.

He is expected to appear in the Witbank magistrate's court on Thursday. His arrest comes after Mozambican national Mauro Aurelia Langa, 41, and Solly Khoza, 35, appeared in the Vrede magistrate's court on Tuesday and are expected back in court on October 24.

According to the Hawks, the pair was nabbed on Saturday while they were delivering the allegedly stolen fuel in Kromdraai, Witbank. The fuel theft and tampering with the Transnet national pipeline had taken place in Vrede, Free State.

"They were arrested by a multidisciplinary team comprised of the Hawks’ Non Ferrous Metals, Tactical Operations Management Section with Secunda and Middelburg based Serious Organised Crime Investigation assisted by Bidvest Protea Coin, Ekurhuleni District Operational Task Team, Badboyz Security and South African Revenue Service.

"Police seized the tanker with fuel which was involved in Saturday's incident," said a media statement from the Hawks.

The Hawks said the multi-disciplinary operations saw 46 suspects being put behind bars in the past three months.

"Now with the additional three linked to this incident, we are sitting at a total of 49 suspects arrested in the country."