EASTERN CAPE – Three males aged between 34 and 46 will appear at the East London Magistrates’ Court on 30 August 2022. This is subsequent to the arrest of the trio by the East London based Serious Organised Crime Investigation team of the Hawks in a joint operation with East London K9 Unit and Combined Private Investigation (CPI) team for charges of damage to essential infrastructure and possession of suspected stolen property.

It is alleged that on 28 August 2022 at about 18:30, a member of Vodacom received information via a tracking system installed on a stolen battery from the cellphone tower. The joint law enforcement team followed up on that information which led the investigative team to the office on Cambridge Street in East London where they requested to conduct a search. Upon the search, 23 cellphone tower batteries were recovered and seized. Out of 23 batteries, 17 were from MTN and six were from Vodacom. The batteries have an estimated value of R575 000-00.

The trio is expected to make its first court appearance today.

Source: South African Police Service