Pollsmoor prison inmates arrested for running extortion and social media scam ring

Pollsmoor Prison Photographer Ayanda Ndamane African News Agency(ANA)

Pollsmoor Prison Photographer Ayanda Ndamane African News Agency(ANA)

Published Oct 28, 2024

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Cape Town - Two inmates at Pollsmoor Prison have been arrested for extorting a fellow prisoner and demanding protection money while behind bars.

The two alleged members of the Hard Livings gang from Tafelsig are accused of demanding R1000 a week, and creating fake Facebook accounts to scam people by claiming to sell meat parcels.

According to a source, the two suspects were taken to the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday after they were charged while in prison by detectives from the Provincial Organised Crime Unit.

The source said the two are awaiting trial prisoners and were first sent to prison in August 2022. The victim in the case was sentenced for fraud and imprisoned in June 2023.

They allegedly demanded R1 000 per week, which the victim’s family had to pay via cash sends or bank accounts provided by the suspects.

When the victim stopped paying, his house was broken into and the suspects informed him they had arranged the burglary as a warning for his refusal to pay and continued to further extort him.

The victim’s Gmail account and profile picture was also used by the suspects to create social media profiles, where they sold meat to the public and while money was received, the buyers never got the goods.

The victim was also threatened by the suspects who claimed the Hard Livings gang would “deal with him and his family” if he refused to cooperate.

Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, confirmed the arrests and said it comes amid ongoing efforts to curb extortion in the Western Cape.

“The two suspects, aged 23 and 24, were arrested by the Provincial Organised Crime detectives and appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

“They were remanded in custody.” Department of Correctional Services (DCS) spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, said they were not aware of the arrests of the two inmates and according to the prison records, they were admitted at Pollsmoor Prison in August 2022 for charges under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

“They appeared in Wynberg Court on October 25 for the said cases.

“They are expected to appear in court again on November 8 for the same crimes.

“Pollsmoor had 43 extortion cases as on October 25 and the two inmates do not appear on the list.”

Nxumalo said no investigation was conducted as their records do not contain extortion charges.

“Furthermore, it needs to be mentioned that no electronic devices were found in the possession of these inmates during searching operations that are conducted from time to time.

“Inmates are searched everyday when they go to court in the morning and upon re-admission from court in the afternoon.

“These searching exercises are intended to intercept and confiscate any unauthorised items from entering the facilities. All persons accessing the facilities are also subjected to searching for the same purpose,” Nxumalo said.

mahira.duval@inl.co.za

Cape Argus