11 arrested for Willowton cooking oil heist to appear in court on Monday

Eleven suspects linked to a robbery at a Willowton Group warehouse near Johannesburg, will appear before the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Gauteng police confirmed.

Ten men and a woman, aged between 21 and 37, were arrested and charged with possession of suspected stolen property on Wednesday evening.

This, after armed suspects robbed the Willowton Group’s off-site warehouse in Boksburg on Wednesday afternoon.

Willowton Group makes Sunfoil cooking oil and other perishable goods.

According to Gauteng police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo, eight armed men stormed the warehouse.

Masondo said the employees inside the warehouse were held at gunpoint before the suspects loaded three trucks with R1.5 million worth of 2litre Sunfoil cooking oil, and fled the scene.

“Later in the evening, police officers from Gauteng Highway Patrol received information that one of the trucks was headed to Vanderbijlpark, still with the cargo. Police asked for backup from various Private Security Companies.

“The truck matching the description was spotted entering business premises in Vanderbijlpark. The team then pounced on the suspects while they were busy offloading the cooking oil,” Masondo said.

IOL spoke to Masondo regarding the details of the business where the oil was being off-loaded but he could not divulge the name of the business as it was part of their investigation.

Masondo told IOL that police caught the eleven suspects off-loading the oil from one of the trucks into the business premises.

He also confirmed that one of the eleven suspects was the driver of the truck.

“I cannot say for now if he was one of those involved in the robbery, but yes, one of the suspects we arrested was the driver of the truck,” he said.

“The investigation is underway to establish if the arrested suspects are linked to the robbery and the search is underway for the loot that is still missing.”

-IOL

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