“The 53-year-old businessman was found safe and unharmed by the SAPS [South African Police] national anti-kidnapping brigade in a house in Kempton Park, on Tuesday afternoon,” the South African police said in a statement, highlighting that he had been “reunited with family”.

According to Lusa, the Portuguese businessman was kidnapped on Monday night at his business, in Bramley, near the suburb of Alexandra, which is around 20 kilometres from where he was found in Kempton Park, east of the South African capital.

The police operation targeted two different areas of Johannesburg, with new suspects being arrested, including a police officer, for involvement in the kidnapping of the Portuguese businessman.

“The anti-kidnapping brigade broke into the place where the businessman was kidnapped, in Kempton Park, and arrested four men and one woman,” he said.

Elsewhere, in Hillbrow, central Johannesburg, South African police arrested two other women and a man, adding that “a 41-year-old police officer was also among those arrested. He was arrested at his place of work”.

The South African security force also indicated that the criminal network that kidnapped Luís Freitas “was allegedly involved in at least five cases of kidnapping Portuguese businessmen, in which they demanded the payment of financial ransom to the victims' families”.

“No ransom payment was made at the time the police rescued the victim [Luís Freitas]”, highlighted the SAPS.