Cape Town – Cash-in-transit company SBV Services has reportedly raised concern over the level of violence used when armed gangs target its cash-in-transit vehicles.
This comes after 13 people, including a South African SA National Defence Force (SANDF) member and a police officer were arrested on Friday last week, in connection with a foiled robbery in Carletonville on the West Rand in Gauteng.
“Looking at attacks across the year compared with the previous two years, the number of attacks overall has remained relatively constant. Attacks on G4S have also not varied materially from year to year,” News24 quoted G4S South Africa MD Renso Smit as saying.
According to IOL, police said that a group of suspects, aged between 21 and 50, attacked a cash truck and took off with an undisclosed amount of money on the R501 road near the N12 highway.
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“Police spotted four getaway vehicles driving at high speed along the R501 before splitting into different directions in Carletonville. A shootout ensued between the suspects and the police which resulted in one officer being injured.
“The shootout did not stop the determined police officers from hunting down the suspects,” the report quoted SAPS spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Netshiunda as saying.
The search pointed them to an identified premises on Geranium Street in Carletonville where one of the getaway vehicles was found, SABC reported.
They also recovered money and explosives.
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According to EWN, this was the latest cash-in-transit heist in Gauteng.
“Residents and motorists reported hearing gunfire while debris from the security vehicle was scattered across the road following an explosion,” the report said.
There has been a spike in cash-in-transit heists, with over 50 cases since the start of the year, with Gauteng as the hotspot, eNCA, reported.
Police were hoping to link the suspects to other cash-in-transit heists in the province, as they were not ruling out the possibility of a new syndicate of robbers.
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