The 39-year-old suspect arrested during the businessman’s rescue is believed to belong to a syndicate responsible for at least four other Johannesburg business kidnappings. (Supplied/Saps)
- A kidnapped businessman has been rescued in Johannesburg.
- The man is one of 12 people to have been rescued by police this year.
- The police say 49 suspected kidnappers have been placed in custody around the country this year.
In six months, 12 kidnapping victims have been rescued around the
country by police. The latest victim, a 49-year-old Portuguese businessman, was
rescued in Johannesburg on Monday night.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said that the
anti-kidnapping task team had been working around the clock to find the
businessman, who was kidnapped from his business premises in Florida,
Johannesburg on 24 June.
“On Monday evening, the team traced the victim to a home in Snake
Park, Soweto, where he had been held in captivity. On the same evening, members
also arrested one of his captors in Turffontein,” said Mathe.
The 39-year-old suspect is believed to belong to a syndicate which is
responsible for at least four other kidnappings where businessmen were targeted
in Johannesburg.
Mathe said:
The team is currently tracing suspects who were working together with the man.
She added that in all of the 12 kidnapping cases in which the victims
had been rescued, no ransom payment was made “as a direct result of the
expertise and capabilities of SAPS detectives, the crime intelligence unit and
collaboration with private security”.
READ | Seven people arrested for Johannesburg businessman’s kidnapping
Mathe added that since the start of the year, 49 kidnappers who had
demanded ransom payment from families of victims have been arrested in Gauteng,
North West and the Free State.
“The SAPS is confident that working together with all stakeholders
and community tip-offs, it will continue to take down more syndicates believed
to be behind a spate of kidnappings for ransom across the country,” she
said.
