Transporter of liquor
Event
This was an interesting case study, both from the point of view of time it took to complete, as well as the lengths the criminals had gone to plan and conceal their crime.
At 23:40 the client called the control room, suspecting that one of his truck trailers carrying liquor had been hijacked. The control room activated Mtrack and was able to ascertain that the trailer was in fact stolen as the horse was parked in Leandra.
A recovery team was sent to the area.
Using Time in Advance the recovery team was able to narrow the search area down to an industrial area close to the highway. Strangely however, they could not pick up a radio beacon. The horse had been found about 7 km from the position of the Mtrack unit.
An extensive and lengthy search then commenced, made difficult by an inexplicable lack of a radio beacon signal and the fact that there were many buildings in the vicinity.
In the meantime, the Mtrack unit had been set to motion sensor in case the trailer was moved.
ETS then sent up a helicopter to search, but nothing was seen from the air.
The recovery team was then forced to stand down and wait for a motion activation.
The following day, the recovery team was redeployed and was able to pick up a very faint beacon which lead them to a warehouse.
This warehouse had been meticulously prepared – for example the grass outside was very long, hiding the movement of any vehicle in and out.
On gaining entry, the team found not only the trailer and the load, but three other cargos as well. The inside of the warehouse had been rebuilt in such a way as to block out as much radio signal as possible using double walls and insulation. The windows had all been blocked up and moved up very high. At the back of the warehouse was a concealed entrance which the criminals obviously used to dispatch their stolen goods. They even had their own forklifts and shelving system!
It looked as if they were planning to move the trailer later that day, in which case it would have been tracked as soon as it left. However, the recovery team demonstrated a huge level of tenacity in refusing to give up the search until it was found.
Value
Approximately R 400,000
