National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola has commended a multi-disciplinary team for the arrest of six men believed to be part of a syndicate that has been terrorising business owners in Gauteng.

SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the team - consisting of various units, led by Crime Intelligence Officers and Organised Crime members - have been conducting surveillance on the syndicate and have already linked them to more than 16 cases.

These include kidnappings where ransom demands were being made in the province.

“In a takedown operation on Thursday morning, the team led by the Special Task Force (STF) and hostage negotiators conducted operations at various identified addresses in Gauteng including Jeppe, Helderwyk, Brackenhurst and Daveyton,” said Mathe.

She said during the operation, a businessman who was kidnapped on 7 January 2023 was successfully rescued from one of the premises and reunited with his family.

“At these premises, police also seized five high performance powered vehicle’s including two BMW’s, two Mercedes Benz sedans and one Toyota Urban Cruiser.

“Twenty cellphones and 30 portable GPS tracking devices are also among the items seized by the team,” she said.

Masemola in the statement said police continue to infiltrate and apprehend those behind the spate of kidnappings in the country.

“Our message is clear: the SAPS is coming for all criminals, either they make our lives easy by handing themselves in or we fetch them ourselves”.

In another unrelated incident, Sandton police arrested a Tanzanian national for possession and dealing in drugs on Wednesday afternoon.

“Police were acting on intelligence driven information when they found the suspect in possession of 500g of crystal meth and 1 kg of Heroine at an upmarket hotel in Sandton,” reads the statement.

Source: South African Government News Agency