Pretoria - Thieves who burgled the Interpol offices in Pretoria have made off with five laptops containing potentially sensitive information about witnesses.

Timeslive reports that the equipment was taken in two burglaries at the weekend, adding that one of the computers stolen allegedly belonged to an officer involved in the extradition of George Louka from Cyprus to South Africa.

There are fears that the theft of the data could also compromise high-profile investigations relating to the extradition of

international criminal suspects, including Nigerian drug syndicates and organised Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese gangs.

Police spokesperson Solomon Makgale confirmed the theft but says investigators have not yet established which computers were stolen,how many were private or state-owned and the data they carried.

Sapa

