Lady Luck abandons elusive Mr Invisible: How chewing gum clue gave cops a break

Wads of saliva-drenched and fingerprint-carrying chewing gum used to mask security camera lenses could prove the undoing of an alleged international cigarette truck hijacking and smuggling boss, "Mr Invisible".

For a decade Mozambican Enoque Luisa Ricotso, 39, stayed a step ahead of detectives investigating him and the cigarette hijacking gang they claim he leads.

That ended on Sunday when Springs police received a surprise tip-off. Mr Invisible, they were told, was en route, on the back of a dilapidated bakkie, to South Africa's border with Swaziland disguised as a farmworker.

For the past four months Ricotso - whom police allege has been linked by DNA profiling to 50 cigarette truck hijackings across South Africa - had reportedly been hiding at his brother's home in Kaapmuiden in Mpumalanga, near the Swaziland border.

He allegedly went into in hiding after two alleged accomplices were arrested shortly after a cigarette truck heist in Vosloorus, on the East Rand, in October. In that heist, which targeted a British American Tobacco truck, the gang made off with cigarettes valued at an estimated R300,000.

Ricotso and the gang, police sources say, are linked to heists in which an estimated R20-million worth of cigarettes have been taken over the past decade.

Most of the hijackings have been of trucks carrying British American Tobacco products such as Peter Stuyvesant.

The popular brands are, say tobacco industry insiders, easy to sell on the black market and do not draw attention to the thieves.

The police believe the cigarette-smuggling racket allegedly headed by Ricotso operates as a network in cities throughout Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.

Police say that for years Mr Invisible - renowned for his great wealth, luxury cars and palatial homes - had been able to stay ahead of detectives.

"He had this ability to just disappear," a police source said. "We would watch his safe house for days, knowing that he was inside. Yet when we raided it he would be gone. That's how he got his nickname."

A detective said the suspects were identified years ago after the police recovered chewing gum they had stuck over the lenses of CCTV cameras inside hijacked trucks.

"They thought they were being clever. They would hijack the trucks wearing balaclavas and then stick gum over the lenses. Once they blocked the lenses they would take their masks off.

"Fortunately, forensic experts recovered the gang's DNA from saliva, and found fingerprints in the gum."

Another policeman said that although the identities of the hijackers were known it had taken years to track them down.

"They were everywhere. They would launch multiple attacks across the country in a few days, then disappear.

"We would receive reports that there were three attacks in Springs, then suddenly two in Durban, four in Cape Town and then five in Nelspruit. It was incredible how they operated, especially the speed at which they worked."

He said just when the police thought they had them, they would escape.

"They were like Houdini."

The policeman said the gang's luck began to run out last year.

"They got greedy and went for too many trucks. We collected good information and slowly started to catch them. The only one we battled to catch was Mr Invisible."

That changed on Sunday with a tip-off that Ricotso was to be driven along the N4 near Komatipoort on the back of a bakkie.

"We were told he was to go to his brother's home in Mozambique by way of Swaziland."

Hours later police spotted him in the bakkie.

"We couldn't believe it. Neither could he. He thought he was home free. He knew we were looking for him but couldn't believe we came from Johannesburg so quickly."

The police almost missed Ricotso, who was only a few kilometres from where he was to be dropped off to walk across the border.

Springs police spokesman, Captain Johannes Ramphora said Ricotso would appear in court soon on 50 charges of armed robbery.

The police want his assets, which they believe to have been acquired with the proceeds of crime, to be seized.