Vehicle parts found in concealed chop shop

A POLICE operation targeting stolen vehicles uncovered a massive “chop shop” in Ngqeleni where at least seven vehicles were found dismantled.

Two men in their early 30s were arrested.

A chop shop is where stolen vehicles are dismantled and their parts sold.

The SAPS Mthatha vehicle identification section and K9 unit discovered the Hyundai H100s, which had been broken up, during a raid on a homestead in the remote village.

A VW Golf was found intact.

The recovery formed part of Operation Vulindlela aimed at curbing taxi violence, car theft, business robberies and other crime. It involves various units from the SAPS in Mthatha and Port St Johns clusters.

It emerged that the recovered vehicles had been reported stolen in Cambridge in East London, Mthatha, Somerset West and other areas.

The “bakkies” are mostly used to transport people in rural areas and are favoured thanks to their durability.

They are locally known as iiGuruguru by passengers and taxi operators.

As the police were busy showing the haul to members of the media at the Coffee Bay police station at about 11am yesterday, they were alerted to a Hyundai H100 reportedly stolen in Port Elizabeth travelling on the N2 between the Kei Bridge and Butterworth.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela said the vehicle was later stopped by the K9 unit and two men aged 33 and 30 were arrested on the R61 past Libode.

Fatyela said the chop shop was discovered on Saturday and the parts were transported to Coffee Bay police station for safekeeping.

“You can see most of these vehicles were new. This chop shop was hidden in the bushes.

“The people who apparently run it escaped when they saw police.

“Two men were later arrested,” said Fatyela.

He said they hoped to make other arrests soon.

Fatyela said it was not immediately clear where the parts stripped from the vehicles were destined for.

They were busy tracing the owners. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za