Heavily armed suspects opened fire on this cash-in-transit vehicle. Picture: Supplied
They set up their hiding places in the more upmarket suburbs, drive flashy cars and are the most violent of South Africa’s criminals.
Cash-in-transit robbers are considered the apex criminals who are not only willing to kill the men they steal from but also their own.
Following hundreds of hours of interviewing, a researcher has for the first time provided insight into who cash-in-transit robbers are, and how they operate.
Dr Hennie Lochner, of Unisa’s school of criminal justice, presented his findings at the Institute of Security Studies offices in Pretoria yesterday.
Lochner interviewed his subjects in jail, and found that most moved into cashin-transit robbery after long histories of crime.
“Most, we found, had their first contact with the police at 22 years of age,” he said.
Previous crimes included house robberies, hijacking and kidnapping.
The majority of the 21 respondents Lochner interviewed had previous occupations that included being policemen, taxi drivers, a professional boxer and a disco dancer.
He found that despite the assumption that cash-in-transit criminals have military training, only one was a former soldier.
What surprised him, though, was their attention to detail when planning a heist.
An average heist takes five months to plan, according to Lochner.
“The longest time spent on planning a heist was one year and two months,” he said.
The planning involves detailed observation. Cash-in-transit vehicles are followed and police helicopters are even watched while taking off.
In one instance, the criminals executed a mock heist to test the reaction time of the police in an area.
“Members are recruited for their driving skills, their involvement in other heists and their ability to handle firearms,” Lochner said.
During the robbery, the most violent of the criminals form the inner ring, dealing directly with the cash-in-transit security officers.
“If people don’t obey any instructions, they will be shot,” he said.
“From my experience as a former detective, where I dealt with taxi violence and farm attacks, I can state that cash-in-transit robbers are the most violent and dangerous criminals in South Africa.”
Richard Phillips, of Cash Connect Management Solutions, said cash-intransit heists were at their height in the late 1990s when there were 700 incidents a year.
The numbers had dropped drastically since then, but over the last year there had been an increase.
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