WELKOM - Members of the South African Police Service's tactical response team (TRT) in Welkom have arrested three men for allegedly being in possession of suspected stolen copper cable, Free State police said on Saturday.
On Friday, at about 11.15am, TRT officers conducted an intelligence-driven operation in the Mannys area in Welkom, Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said.
They followed up on information about a red VW Polo with Lesotho registration number plates, suspected to have been stolen, possibly containing stolen copper cables.
The officers spotted the car and approached it. The three occupants were requested to get out of the car and they were searched, along with their car.
The officers found 28 rolls of copper cable weighing 10.94kg with a street value of about R6050 in the car and arrested the three suspects, aged 35, 30, and 37. They would appear in the Welkom Magistrates' Court on Monday, Makhele said.
Free State police commissioner Lt-Gen Moeketsi Sempe applauded the "hard working" officers, as theft of copper wire had started to become a problem in the area.