Robbers' bloody stand-off

The gang is well-trained, heavily armed and, until a bloody shoot-out in Midrand yesterday, was always one step ahead of the police.

For months the gang has used a vehicle cloned from a Gauteng police dog unit van to hijack long-haul trucks transporting millions of rands of state-of-the-art cellphones and laptops from the Jet Park industrial area, near OR Tambo International Airport.

The goods - none of which have been recovered - were flown into South Africa and had not been registered on their owners' inventory systems. The gang, of which detectives became aware in April, is believed to have about 20 members - said to include rogue cops.

A policeman said: "This case was nearly impossible to crack.

"We heard about this mysterious police car involved in hijackings but couldn't find it."

The "police car" was used to set up a roadblock and bring the trucks to a stop.

A tip-off helped the police locate the fake police car at a townhouse in Clayville, near Midrand.

Two months ago undercover police hid a tracking device in the car, hoping to catch the suspects as they set out to hijack a truck.

But a signal jamming device interfered with their monitoring .

Police got their breakthrough when an informant alerted them to the car being moved.

There were five men in the vehicle, including an Olifantsfontein constable, who earlier in the day allegedly tried to hijack a truck leaving Jet Park.

Members of the Hawks, the dog unit, the flying squad and Tracker employees, followed the vehicle through Midrand.

The men in the car became suspicious and opened fire on the police. The police returned fire, killing two of the occupants. They arrested the surviving three .

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the suspects were all wearing police uniforms.

Said Ramaloko: "We are not sure where they were going when we found them.

"Four firearms, including a policeman's service pistol, an R5 rifle and two handguns were seized. Bulletproof vests, police radios and a signal jammer were recovered.

"This gang is sophisticated. They have monitoring equipment that they use to listen in to police radio channels.

"They had police equipment, which we believe the arrested policeman supplied."