IN PICS | Five men 'on their way to carry out hit' arrested in Cato Manor

Five heavily armed men who were allegedly on their way to kill a high-profile person were intercepted by police at Cato Manor, Durban, on Thursday.

KwaZulu-Natal community safety MEC Sipho Hlomuka said the five were suspected of being hitmen linked to a number of cases.

He said police received a tip-off about an impending “hit” and acted on the information.

The men were travelling in three vehicles — a silver bakkie, a hired Toyota Starlet and a third car belonging to one of the men.

Hlomuka said the bakkie was allegedly stolen at Inanda and the suspects were going to use it as one of their escape vehicles.

“I’m not going to mention the person’s name as we are still in the process of investigations but he is a high-profile person in Durban. Police followed the cars and found many guns that I’m not going to mention by name,” he said, adding that they had arrested at least four people.

Five men were handcuffed by the police next to a bakkie at the scene of the arrest.

He said reasons why the “high-profile person” had been targeted were still unknown.

“The police are going to do the work and process all the firearms found at the scene and also we are going to investigate the phones that were found in the possession of the suspects. Their phones are ringing as we speak and whoever hired them to go and kill that person is calling to check how far they are,” he said.

Asked whether the suspects were linked to the recent hit on rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, Hlomuka said they were still going to investigate possible links.

He said investigations into AKA’s murder were ongoing and police would provide details as soon as they were available.

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