Cash heists gangs are back with a vengeance

This is a 32% increase on the corresponding period last year, during which there were 74 heists on cash-in-transit vehicles, according to the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric).

The cash-in-transit gangs scored an estimated R45-million between January and yesterday, much more than in the corresponding period last year, Sabric said.

Sabric CEO Kalyani Pillay said the criminals were increasingly using explosives in attacks.

"The blowing up of cash-in-transit vehicles has become a major problem.

"What alarms us particularly is the level of violence in the heists. Robbers now appear to be deliberately extreme in their violence."

Last month robbers used explosives to blow open the side of a cash-in-transit van after blocking off a section of the R24 highway near OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, causing motorists on the highway to run for cover.

Pillay said more R180-million was lost in heists last year.

Seven guards have been killed and 16 injured this year. No robbers have been injured or killed, and very few have been arrested.

Mpumalanga and Limpopo are the worst-hit provinces.

Police statistics show that in the 2014-2015 financial year there were 114 cash heists.

In the 2015-2016 financial year there were 137 heists.

The police met representatives of the banking and cash-in-transit industries in April to find ways of countering the onslaught.

There is great concern about the ease with which robbers obtain military and espionage equipment and technology.

The equipment includes specialised signal-jamming devices, radio channel, computer and vehicle monitoring technology and computer-hacking software.

Armed with these resources, robbers can track cash-in-transit vehicles, jam the guards' communication systems, interfere with vehicle CCTV monitoring equipment, render police radio systems useless and block cellphone coverage during attacks.

A police source said those behind the heists were increasingly becoming involved in bank and casino robberies.

Last month, 17 men, one of whom was killed, attacked Emerald Resort & Casino in Vanderbijlpark, blowing open a vault and making off with millions. Two security guards and a policewoman were shot.

It is suspected those involved had police or military expertise.

"You can see it in the type of firearms being used. Bullets fired from military weapons go straight through our armoured vehicles."

The source said a national police team of senior detectives had been asked to investigate.

Pillay said the crimes are committed by only a few gangs.

Acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane said police management met recently to plan a fight-back strategy.

"We have analysed heists and identified 20 policing clusters in which these and other violent crimes are increasing."

Danny Myburg of Cyanre, the Computer Forensic Lab, said the acquisition of the military equipment robbers used was strictly regulated internationally.

"You could get this equipment only on the black market, [sourced] from former eastern European Soviet bloc countries."

He said many of the devices were large and had to be built into vehicles.

Unisa criminologist Rudolph Zinn said research showed that the police's inability to gather adequate crime intelligence contributed to the increase in heists.