The terrifying tentacles of kidnapping for ransom syndicates have crawled from Mozambique into South Africa over the past few years, with a convicted killer believed to be one of the kingpins pulling the strings from inside a maximum security prison in Maputo.

But Nini Satar, serving a 24-year sentence for the 2000 murder of journalist Carlos Cardosa who investigated massive embezzlement at the Commercial Bank of Mozambique, has denied any involvement in kidnappings in South Africa that have shot up by more than 530% over the past three years.

A TimesLIVE investigation funded by the Henry Nxumalo Foundation has exposed several kidnapping rings operating in South Africa, based on interviews with Mozambican and South African Police Service sources, friends and family of the victims, international police dockets and classified state security documents seen by TimesLIVE reporters.

It tells a tale of kidnapping for ransom starting mainly in Mozambique, targeting super-rich families. According to Mozambican intelligence documents, police believe Satar has, since 2012, from his cell in Maputo’s infamous B.O. maximum security prison, been building his kidnapping empire, one that has forced many of that country’s business elite to flee to South Africa.

The exodus saw Satar, who allegedly recruited foot soldiers from among his fellow inmates, turn his sights to South Africa and its uber-wealthy local and international business community. Among Satar’s alleged “most trusted lieutenants” is Esmail Nangy who is said to have gone as far as undergoing facial reconstruction surgery to avoid being caught, but was nonetheless apprehended at his luxury Centurion home earlier this year.

One of the worst cases linked to this syndicate is that of Mbombela businesswoman Gita Samgi, whose family fled Mozambique after her sister, Poornimah Singh, was kidnapped in Maputo and later released. Samgi, the owner of a forex business, was not as lucky. Her kidnappers sent her family videos of her being burnt with a hot iron, screaming for help. The family paid several ransom amounts  totalling an estimated R130m but she was still found dead, months after her kidnapping, under an N4 highway bridge near eMalahleni on February 28 2020.

Satar has professed his innocence. His lawyer, Mutola Escova, described claims against him as “social media gossip”.

“My client is not just any person. He doesn`t have to [kidnap for ransom]. Satar is a successful entrepreneur. He owns 40 apartments in Paris. He is a great businessman and this has always caused a lot of envy in society. Satar, in 1996, was accused of having committed a bank fraud of $144m (now about R2.6bn). He ended up confessing to this crime, but that money was never recovered by the bank,” said Escova.

My client is not just any person. He doesn`t have to [kidnap for ransom]. Satar is a successful entrepreneur. He owns 40 apartments in Paris.

As kidnapping for ransom spread in South Africa, local criminals, working in cahoots with corrupt police officers, spotted this as a new opportunity and started copycat kidnappings. The Western Cape police have recently had some success in clamping down on their crooked colleagues, with five officers nabbed.

Other gangs caught on. Tariq “Baba” Tahir, believed to be the head of a crime cartel known as Lajpal, with its roots in Pakistan, has been operating freely in South Africa  despite being declared a prohibited person nine years ago. 

Driving around in a convoy of black SUVs and surrounded by heavily armed bodyguards, sometimes attending late-night meetings outside petrol stations, Tahir has been arrested and appeared in court in connection with at least five kidnappings for ransom. He managed to walk free every time.

Despite his prohibition and numerous department of home affairs (DHA) rejections of his visa appeals, Tahir secured his latest spousal visa on May 31 2022. He can remain here until May 30 2024. Applicants for such visas are only eligible to receive one if they have not been prohibited.

Tahir’s latest visa acquisition is now the subject of a Hawks investigation, with detectives looking into how Lajpal infiltrated the DHA. Home affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza told TimesLIVE Tahir was “a person of interest whose status is irregular”. He said the questions from TimesLIVE exposed a “web” that pointed to a “manipulation of our systems by some officials”.

“The counter corruption branch is following leads to get to the bottom of this. The department will revoke his status,” said Qoza.

Tahir referred requests for comment to his lawyer, Riaan Louw, who said he had not received instructions from his client and therefore could not comment.

Tahir is believed to have worked himself up as cartel leader after its previous commanders died from poisoned food at a meeting in Clocolan in the Free State in 2007. Tahir, who was supposed to have been at the same meeting but never showed up, was allegedly a mid-level member of Lajpal at the time. He was never charged for the killings but four other Lajpal members were convicted in 2013 after the bodies were discovered buried in the garden of a Clocolan house in 2008.

The deaths, say police sources, cleared the way for new blood to transform the group into what it is today a global human trafficking and ransom kidnapping cartel that instils fear in South Africa’s émigré Pakistani community. 

Also living in fear are business owners in the Eastern Cape where there have been nearly 150 kidnappings for ransom over the past year, with six people reportedly murdered. Driving the surge are extortion racketeers who, working with police, threaten business owners with kidnapping unless they pay protection fees.

A police source with knowledge of the national Hawks team’s investigation said those kidnapped were targeted because they refused to pay protection money. “The extortionists and kidnappers are the same. Last year protection fees hovered around R250,000. This year they rose to R500,000 per business. The syndicates are making a killing.”

In Cape Town, a new trend known as “express kidnappings” is emerging. These consist of a kidnapping with a quick turnaround time. Demands mostly start at more than R1m, but are often settled at between R5,000 and R200,000. 

Police said kidnapping is increasingly being used to force victims to pay over inheritances or lump-sum pension payouts. Criminals operating in townships from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape appear to be gathering information on those in their communities who may have received such payments.

According to official police statistics in the 2019/2020 reporting year, 77 kidnapping cases in which ransoms were demanded were recorded by the police. In the 2022/2023 year, this number had swelled to 409, representing an increase of 531% over three years.