A blast at a shop owned by Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir is the latest killing linked to the fugitive
Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw.” TS Eliot may have been writing about South Africa’s own “Napoleon of Crime”, Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, who has publicly distanced himself from the murders which continue to baffle Johannesburg’s underworld.
But his name is never far from the murky world that is Johannesburg’s gangland, and the bodies around Krejcir keep piling up. True to form, following a bombing at the businessman’s shop: “When the milk is missing, or another Peek’s been stifled, the greenhouse glass is broken and the trellis past repair, ay, there’s the wonder of the thing: Macavity’s not there.”
Body Count timeline:
Police are still looking for a motive for an explosion at business premises owned by Krejcir in Bedfordview in the East Rand on Tuesday, which killed two people and injured at least five.
“At this stage the motive is unknown, but investigators have taken statements from a few people,” Brigadier Neville Malila told reporters. He said Krejcir was not currently considered a suspect and the case was being investigated by detectives from the Hawks and the national and provincial police.
“Investigators took a statement from him last night [Tuesday] and at this stage he is not a suspect. They will be able to get hold of him if it is needed,” said Malila. Krejcir has so far declined to comment on the blast, telling Sapa: “Sorry, I’m not talking to the press.”
One of the men killed in the blast was a fugitive called Jan “John” Charvat, who is wanted in the Czech Republic and one of Krejcir’s closest “enforcers”, it was reported by Eyewitness News on Wednesday.
A heavily armed man who was standing near the crime scene with grieving relatives was overheard telling them that “blood will flow. I tell you, now blood will flow”, the Times reported. A crime intelligence officer told the newspaper that the blast was just the build-up and that “a storm is coming”. – Mail and Guardian . Additional reporting by Sapa
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