Suspected illegal cigarette smugglers have been intercepted.
They were travelling on the R5 1 road when police received a tip off.
The cigarettes confiscated
are believed to have been manufactured outside of South Africa.
During the police operation,
three men were arrested.
One died during a high speed chase while five escaped.
We have intercepted an illicit cigarette syndicate er
that was travelling from a Berhanek road along the R5 1,
9 road from Polokwane towards the side of Zibidelela Policing Area er.
In the process, er,
a high speed chase ensued
resulting in one of the er mastermind behind the illicit er
smuggling of cigarette getting involved in a very,
very er, horrendous accident.
He was involved in an accident er,
thereby colliding with a truck and he died instantly.
So, and then as a result,
there were other er cars that we were following upon and er
we managed to arrest three suspects in the process.
Those suspects are illegal er foreigners.
The road was temporarily closed.
Witnesses on the scene say
one of the vehicles that was chased by the police
collided head on with a truck.
I come from at work. The truck with a truck. The,
the guy with the car will come in front of the car
after in front of the truck.
The truck that’s crash away the car.
The consignment that was seized
is estimated to be of high street value.
This is actually a huge consignment
er that we have managed to Recover this evening.
Er, as you would have seen, kathlego,
that there is this van and then there is another van.
And beside this van,
there are two or three vehicles that we intercepted along Bergen Road.
Er, there is er Ford Ranger.
There’s also a Mercedes Benz.
Here in this very, er scene,
we’ve got a, a, a, a,
a Ford Ranger. We also have a RAV4.
So all these cars had this illicit cigarettes.
So we, if we were to estimate,
we can say over a million or so
smugglers have taken to using the back roads to evade arrest.
S a, B C news.