Bribes & Threats...continued

Last week, we outlined how bribes and threats are posed and the significance of having a strategy in place for whistle blowing, bearing in mind that 80% of serious and violent crime, especially murders, armed robberies and rape, rely on inside information being passed on to assist criminals.

This week’s article is a follow-up, aimed at showing employers how your enemy (the criminal) operates. The following information was all obtained via a whistle blower first hand and is genuine except for some letters and numerals that have been replaced with bold capital letters. The gang concerned would not hesitate to tackle a residential property providing easy access and substantial pickings were available.

Although the account below probably appears to be beyond the scope of the average employer to obtain, rest assured that obtaining information is not that difficult. Most criminals are unable to keep quiet and are egotistical over their previous activities and operational skills, believing that they are just too tough and smart to be caught. Moreover, they have little or no respect for the country’s judicial system. This presents an ideal climate for crime, in which whistle-blowing should and can feature much, much more than it does, simply because its value is underestimated and not practiced.

THE WHITEWOLF GANG .

The gang calls themselves the WHITEWOLF and consists of 2 Namibians, and 5 South Africans.

One of the members of the gang has a false ID in the name of Ben Swart and has 2 x 9mm pistols.

All the above are armed and considered to be very dangerous.

They drive a white Toyota Corolla with dark tinted windows and a blue stripe down the sides. Reg XYZ 495 VV

MODUS OPERANDI

The group makes contact with a link person who is in a controlling position within a security company, bank, or the like.

They then offer large rewards for assisting them in armed robbery. The site is carefully screened in advance with getaway points planned etc. A day and time is also planned a few days in advance on which the robbery will take place.

On the appointed day, the link person will phone the robbers on the cellular and give the “go ahead” or otherwise. The robbery is then perpetrated in the following manner.

1) AAA BANK – KIMBERLEY

The link man was the Assistant Manager. The Manager has the keys to the safes. On the appointed day, the Assistant Manager phoned the robbers and told them to call off the robbery because the Manager had gone out and the keys to the safes would not be available.

If an itemized print out of the Assistant Managers cell phone is obtained, it should be possible to verify if he phoned the robbers. Failing that, the itemized print out of the Banks phone will work.

The information on this job was conveyed to one of the security officers purley because of the criminals brazen attitude and need for their ego to be satisfied by bragging.

2) YYYYY GARAGE

A former employee of YYYYY is connected to the gang. He believes that XXXXX SECURITY still do the armed response services to YYYYY but he is incorrect. YYYYY was sold to a new owner recently and the contract was not renewed with XXXXX. However, the employee is not aware of this.

The employee knows one of the response officers whom he introduced the gang to. The officer was offered R6000 to assist. He was required to help them plan the robbery and to site the best place for the getaway vehicle. The plan was that our response vehicle should visit YYYYY Garage between the hours of 1 and 2am on Sunday morning, 23th January 2002.

If all was clear, the officer would phone the robbers and then leave. He was instructed to delay reaction to any panic signals so that the robbers could make their getaway in good time.

The problem was that the security company had no contract with YYYY, no insurance disclaimer, or indemnity, and as the lives of their staff were at serious risk, they expected to at least be paid for their service by YYYYY. This was not forthcoming when they approached the owner of YYYYY.

Consequently on the appointed night of the intended robbery, the officer by arrangement, phoned the robbers and told them that the Police were in the area and that they should call it off for another night. This was done.

Shortly after, the robbers said that they were returning to Namibia and no further contact was made for a while.

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In both these cases, reaction officers reported the incidents to my security company at the time. Our company had incorporated a strategy of complete trust with employees to inform on criminals.

There were more attempts to infiltrate the company, however, because of our relationship with our employees, all failed due to whistle blowing.

Be safe – Know your opponent.

PRIVATE EYE