Hawks bust scrap yards after tip-off

Elite SA Police Service unit, the Hawks, have uncovered several tons of stolen railway sleepers at a scrap yard in Springs.

The special police unit had been following up a tip-off that Jimmy’s Scrap Yard was buying stolen scrap metal.

The Hawks found on arrival on Tuesday what they thought was likely to have been a hijacked truck.

The registration on the vehicle licence did not match the number plates, which appeared to have been stuck on not too long ago.

While they were checking the truck, which had been carrying tons of sleepers, another truck reversed from the entrance of the gate and sped off after apparently being signalled to do so by the security guard.

Hawks officials gave chase and arrested the two men inside who said they were told not to come in because police were inside the scrap yard, according to the police. More railway sleepers were found inside the truck.

“Transnet does not sell these tracks to anyone, they were definitely stolen,” said Colonel Clifford Carlinsky, who was leading the investigation.

One container had to be unlocked using bolt cutters because the keys for the lock could not be found. Inside, more sleepers were uncovered buried under heaps of scrap metal.

Carlinsky said there were many scrap yards that bought stolen metals and sold them as scrap metal. One such example, he said, was the copper sold from cable theft.

“It’s a very lucrative business. These parts are exported to countries which need more raw materials like China, Dubai and Japan,’’ said Carlinsky.

He said that the problem was that once at the harbour, the locked containers would not be checked thoroughly if at all - especially if the contents were listed as scrap metal.

The spokesman for the Hawks, McIntosh Polela, said;

“According to our information, they (the suspects in custody) cut off (the sleepers) from train tracks in Heidelberg - where a train is still running - and loaded them onto two trucks… the value of the sleepers was estimated to be between R1.5 million and R1.8m,” he said.

Casper Moodie, the owner of Jimmy’s Scrap Yard, would not comment.

Polela said Moodie and the two men who were arrested would all be charged with theft and possession of stolen property. - The Star