Anneliese Burgess, author of HEIST a novel about cash-in-transit robberies in South Africa says her research shows that police are behind some of the major cash heists.
On Thursday, a group of more than 10 suspects bombed two cash vans in Boksburg east of Johannesburg.
Five of them were later arrested following a high speech chase by the police which ended at the George Gogh hostel south of Johannesburg.
Police have denied that one of the arrested suspects is a police officer.
Last month a Hawks police official based in Mpumalanga was arrested for his alleged involvement in a 2015 cash in transit heist.
Burgess says her research proves that police are involved in many of the cash heist robberies.
“I went to look at 10 big heists over the last 20 years to try and understand how these incidents are executed and out of those 10 heists only three were done without the involvement of police officers. The involvement of these officers is extraordinary. There were cases were police officers were in charge of bringing guns to the scene and there are instances where they were in charge of taking money away from the scene,” says Burgess.
