The Upington based Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team and Springbok Public Order Policing team acted on information received of an alleged illegal miner who was about to board a minibus taxi travelling to Cape Town. The team put together a quick disruptive operation, the said minibus was identified and stopped.

Upon conducting a search, police recovered an amount of R267 250-00 in two passengers’ bags. The first amount to be discovered was R227 450-00, the owner of the bag was identified and he failed to properly account for the origin of the funds. On searching the second bag, police found an amount of R39 800-00 concealed in a plastic container, the bag owner also could not properly account for the cash.

Both suspects were arrested and police conducted further investigation on their immigration status in the country. One was found to be an illegal Tanzanian immigrant and the second suspect was found to be an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant. Police confiscated the said money for further investigation, and an enquiry file was opened for investigation to establish the source of the funds.

The suspects are expected to make a brief court appearance before Springbok Magistrate Court on Friday, 15 September 2023, on contravention of Immigration Act.

Content retrieved from: https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=48415.