“The Uitenhage Police is alert and criminals should know that we have a zero tolerance approach to all crimes,” said the Cluster Commander of Uitenhage, Brigadier Phillip Salukazana today. This relates to the swift arrest of a 32 year-old male suspect from Motherwell, just minutes after a delivery vehicle transporting cigarettes was robbed of its load in Dwarane Street, Green Fields in KwaLanga Uitenhage.
It is believed that the driver of the delivery vehicle was accosted at gunpoint after delivering stock at a shop at about 10:00 this morning. The two armed suspects then loaded their getaway vehicle, a white City Golf, with cigarettes from the delivery vehicle and sped away. Police was contacted and members of Kamesh SAPS circulated the details of the getaway car over the SAPS radio system.
Very soon thereafter alert members of the Uitenhage SAPS spotted the City Golf on the Koedoes Kloof road, outside Uitenhage. They immediately gave chase and the driver of the Golf stopped and jumped out. He was arrested in nearby bushes. It is believed that the other suspect was dropped off somewhere along the road.
The Golf was loaded with the stolen cigarettes, covered with a blanket inside the car. Cigarettes to the value of R170 000 were recovered, the vehicle seized and taken to the Vehicle Identification Service for further investigation. The case will be investigated by the SAPS Organised Crime Unit in Port Elizabeth.
The suspect will appear in the Uitenhage Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 9 June 2014, on a charge of Armed Robbery.