Police Operations at SA’s ports of entry yield successes
Pretoria : 4 April 2017 – The South African Police Service, as part of its Back to Basics approach and in its efforts to prevent and combat crime and corruption at our borders, has led a nationwide police intelligence driven-operation over this past week.
The multi-departmental operations which included the South African Revenue Services and the Department of Home Affairs were conducted at our land, sea and air ports.
There were significant successes resulting from these operations in that 101 suspects were arrested as well and a variety of items were recovered/seized. These items included drugs, counterfeit goods, 19 illegal firearms and approximately 362 rounds of ammunition, hijacked vehicles, as well as undeclared foreign currency. We will endeavour to establish if the firearms were used in the commission of other crimes.
There are currently 69 cases under investigation which resulted from the arrests and seizures. These cases include rape, possession of unlicensed firearms, possession of and dealing in drugs, trading in counterfeit goods, possession of stolen property and possession of undeclared foreign currency
The total value of the goods seized amounted to over R18.5 million (counterfeit goods such as illicit cigarettes and illegal branded clothing, stolen vehicles, undeclared foreign currency, drugs and unlicensed and stolen firearms).
Such operations are not the first and they certainly will not be the last. The resultant arrests and seizures should serve as a warning to potential criminals that we could pounce on them at anytime, day or night.
