A Chinese man and two police constables are behind bars for abducting a South African man and stealing his truck together with its cargo worth millions.
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Police Constables (PC) Mothibeli Mokhethi and Pheello Motsingoane, both 40, and the 29-year-old Yu Dong Wei were last Friday remanded in custody by the Maseru Magistrate’s Court. The two cops appeared before Magistrate Lebusa Tšosane while Yu Dong appeared before Magistrate Molapo.
PC Mokhethi works at Flight One while Motsingoane is based in Marakabei.
The cops were charged with five counts of theft of a truck and its trailer loaded with goods and kidnapping of the truck’s driver.
The incident happened on August 11.
Sergeant Katiso Mongali of the police department of Cyber Crime and Money Laundering said they received a report that a truck from South Africa coming to Lesotho was stolen on the night of August 11.
Sergeant Mongali said investigations revealed that the truck was passing through the Ha-Hoohlo area when it was stopped by two police officers.
One officer was in uniform and the other in private clothes.
Sergeant Mongali said the policemen ordered the driver to get out of the truck and pushed him into a 4+1 car that was parked nearby.
They then drove him to Koro-Koro where they gave him M32 to return to the Maseru border post and return to his home in QwaQwa, South Africa.
Sergeant Mongali said the officers threatened the driver that he would be in danger if he reported the incident to the police.
The driver however reported the matter. He said the head of the truck was found abandoned in Ha-’Mantšebo.
Investigations revealed that Yu Dong Wei, the Chinese, was the brains behind the crime. The agreement was that he would take half the cargo while the policemen and seven South Africans would share the other half.
The police also discovered that the goods should have been dropped off at Yu Dong’s place but the mission failed because he didn’t have a forklift to offload them. It was not mentioned who owned the truck or the goods.
Yu Dong was granted bail of M20 000 and a surety of M200 000 while the two police officers were each granted a bail of M10 000 and a surety of M100 000.
They failed to pay and were remanded in custody.
Their next remand will be next Wednesday.
Staff Reporter
