TAPA IIS


13


It is believed police were able to locate the gang at the holiday park after what one police official called a ‘not smart’ phone call to Romania. Prior to the raid, plain clothed police officers located in the park closely observed the activities of the gang for several days and were able to identify that the van in front of the holiday cabin was full of boxes.


The 04.30hrs police raid clearly caught the gang by surprise and led to all five Romanians being detained. Outside the premises in a white Hyundai SUV with a German licence plate, police officers recovered boxes of Phones as well as the axle grinder the gang used to cut through the rear door locks of trucks. The roof of the SUV had also been modified to facilitate the gang’s activities, which involved driving the vehicle close to the back doors of a truck, climbing out through the SUV’s roof in order to cut through the moving truck’s rear door locks and then passing products from the vehicle back to accomplices in the SUV.


This remains an ongoing investigation, which Vigilant hopes to look at in more detail later in the year in the form of an interview with Dutch police.


€200,000


A Theft of Vehicle and its cargo of Tobacco was recorded on 20 July after thieves struck at a Services 3rd Party Facility in Kirchlengern in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.


€198,561


The Grasmere filling station on the N1 main highway in Cape Town, South Africa, was the scene of this violent truck Hijacking on 21 July. A shipment of vodka was stolen in the attack. Police later found the truck and its driver, who was tied up, who was tied up and locked inside the , af er f


and locked inside the vehicle, after following a tracker signal.


a tracker signal


The driver told police three armed suspects offloaded the cargo at a different location and police ultimately tracked the stolen goods to a house in Randfontein, one media report stated. Two men have since been arrested.


A newspaper report in South Africa says Grasmere has been the scene of a number of car and truck hijackings. In May, police arrested a gang of five men near the Grasmere Toll Gate - allegedly members of a truck hijacking syndicate - shortly after they had attacked a truck carrying some €130,000 worth of pharmaceuticals. The suspects were said to be wearing Metro police uniforms at the time of their arrest. Two of the men were later discovered to have been out on bail for allegedly taking part in an earlier heist at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport.


€132,684


Although the majority of cargo crimes reported to TAPA’s IIS continue to occur in the UK, it was the location of only one major cargo loss in July – the theft of a shipment of cider from a Destination Facility in West Thurrock, Essex, on 19 July. This was a classic ‘round the corner’ incident. The driver of the truck was approached by someone wearing logoed clothing, who explained there was


a problem at the facility and instructed the driver to take the load to a different location. The thieves were subsequently able to steal part of the load before making their escape.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18