Five suspects, including two South Africans, two Ugandans and one Malawian national, have been arrested following an intelligence operation that led to the foiling of a kidnapping.

The South African Police Intelligence Service and organised crime operatives, including the Hawks, have gathered information about a South African woman who planned to have her employer kidnapped and forced to withdraw large sums of money from her business bank account.

Through intelligence agencies and close cooperation with the target to be kidnapped, a mock kidnapping was planned.

The SAPS reserves the right not to go into detail about the execution of the operation as this would reveal how intelligence-led operations are conducted.

The SAPS can therefore confirm that following this successful sham kidnapping and complicity to ensure the syndicate is busted, five suspects were arrested while planning to withdraw the money that was ‘transferred’ following the ‘kidnapping’ of this ‘female employer’.

The five suspects were arrested for taking part in a kidnapping operation and extortion at their meeting place in Melrose Arch on Friday 23 August 2024.

Three vehicles were seized: a Range Rover, a Toyota Ayga and a white Polo Vivo.

Ten mobile phones were also seized.

SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola commended the work of the intelligence service and the organised crime unit, which carefully and meticulously executed a smooth operation to ensure that the lives of the victims were not endangered.

“This was a sensitive operation but thanks to the experience and skills of our organised crime and intelligence team, we managed to break the backbone of this syndicate. We believe that we have foiled many other kidnappings by taking this syndicate out. Investigations are continuing to determine if they can be linked to other kidnappings, especially for ransom,” said General Masemola.

This operation would not have been successful without the help of other stakeholders, including private security and EMPD.