This long weekend ending Monday 17 December 2018, ushered in the festive season holidays and thus the second phase of the police’s Safer Festive Season Operations, whose focus will be on road safety complemented by intensified police visibility and integrated crime prevention operations.
To this end, operations conducted across Gauteng over the long weekend saw police recovering at least 24 unlicensed firearms, over 900 suspects arrested, and counterfeit goods worth more than R8 million confiscated after police in the early morning hours on Sunday, 16 December 2018 received information about a truck off loading goods in Randfontein in the West Rand.
The more than 900 suspects were arrested during the operations and road blocks for various crimes ranging from: driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of suspected stolen property including suspected stolen motor vehicles and assault.
Various crime hotspots were identified and raided. Giving a breakdown of the arrests, 123 were arrested in Johannesburg West Cluster during the roadblock and stop and search, while 10 non compliant liquor outlets were closed down. Thirty suspects wanted for serious and violent crimes were successfully traced and arrested. A number of suspects were also arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Johannesburg Central Cluster arrested 105 suspects for various crimes including fraud, possession of drugs, rape, murder and 13 drunk and driving.
Other operations were conducted in Ekurhuleni West where 123 suspects were arrested, as well as Soweto East Clusters Tshwane North, where over 500 suspects were arrested.
With the 24 firearms that were recovered, police also recovered volumes of ammunition of different calibres.
The arrested suspects will appear in various Magistrates’ Courts soon.
Police will continue to hunt for criminals and conduct operations, we urging the community to come forth with information that can help in the investigation or the arrest of the suspects. Information can be given by calling Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or call the nearest police station.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
