50kg gold seized at Pretoria Phumulani toll plaza - 23 million Gold

• 

24 karat gold bars are seen at the United States West Point Mint facility in West Point, New York in this June 5, 2013 file photo. Bargain prices and the need to replace reserves will tempt gold miners back into the takeover game, but not to the flashy mega-projects that soured too often in the last round of deals. 
Image by: SHANNON STAPLETON / Reuters

The Hawks say they have intercepted an illicit, gold-smuggling ring next to the Pumulani Toll Plaza on the N1 in Pretoria.

The six-man syndicate was driving in three vehicles from Limpopo on the N1 towards Pretoria, the Hawks said in a statement. It has not yet been established to where the heavily armed men were transporting the heavily guarded gold.

The Hawks investigators pulled them off the N1 in the early hours of yesterday morning, just after they had paid at the toll gate.

"On searching their vehicles, of which one belonged to the cash-in-transit company, 50 kg of gold worth R23 million, five firearms and three vehicles were seized.

"The men, of whom four are employed at the cash-in-transit company, are now in custody and being questioned."

They are due to appear in the Pretoria North Magistrate's Court tomorrow, on charges of dealing and smuggling precious metal.

The Acting National Head of the Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks, Brigadier Ebrahim Kadwa, said: "If this syndicate thought we sleep on Sunday evening, we do not".