The daring heist at OR Tambo International Airport Tuesday night in which robbers, posing as police, stole millions in US dollars, is receiving high-level police attention.
Armed men intercepted a consignment of cash being delivered by a top security firm to a waiting aircraft.
It’s been rumoured that the as much as R24m was stolen.
Acting national police commissioner, General Khomotso Phahlane, dispatched a team of police investigators and crime intelligence officers to the scene.
Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that Phahlane gave an assurance to South Africans that South African Police Service would do “everything possible” to get to the bottom of the incident
The Hawks in Gauteng have also sent a commander to OR Tambo International as mystery deepens as to how the gang managed to breach a high security area.
Earlier, national Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the matter is receiving serious attention from the law enforcement agencies in the country.
However said they were not in a position to divulge the details pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Acsa said the armed robbery happened at around 7.45pm.
“No shots were fired and no injuries have been reported. The robbers fled and it is not known at this stage what, if anything, was taken during the incident,” Acsa said in a statement late on Tuesday night.
In 2006, a heist at the then Johannesburg International Airport a gang of robbers made off with R100 million from a plane carrying foreign currency. Most of the gang were arrested and later convicted in 2012.
– African News Agency (ANA)
