Three men will appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday for being in possession of stolen laptops and computer parts worth R3 million, police say.
Gauteng police spokesman superintendent Eugene Opperman says the three were arrested yesterday after a tip-off from the public. It also follows a three-month investigation by detectives from the police's counter-organised crime division and operatives from its crime intelligence structure.
The computer equipment was recovered at a building in Braamfontein and a flat in Bruma. The men are all in their 20s. Detectives are attempting to link them to a variety of house and business robberies.
They are also seeking a link between the men and a spate of robberies that involved robbers following people to their destinations from OR Tambo International Airport and attacking them. Laptops have been taken in such incidents.
"We're looking at possibilities that there may be a link between the robberies and the find," he says.
Opperman says more arrests are possible.
Criminals have a known fondness for notebooks and other mobile computing devices, as they are light, easy to purloin and have a high resale value. More sophisticated criminals also access the data on the devices and have been known to sell it to interested parties.
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