KwaZulu-Natal police have embarked on a number of operations for the past five days starting from 26 November 2013 to 1 December in preparation for the Festive Season. These operations included stop and search, roadblocks, cordon and search, tracing of wanted suspects, illegal firearm raids and high police visibility operations.
A total of 1121 suspects were arrested for crimes ranging from murder, attempted murder, rape, business robbery, house robbery, hijacking, theft of motor vehicles, assault, possession of unlicensed firearms, possession of drugs as well as other petty offences. During the operations, drugs, alcohol and knives were seized. A total of 55 firearms and 24 rounds of ammunition were seized during these operations. Police recovered rifles, pistols, shotguns and homemade firearms and these firearms will be sent for ballistic tests to determine if they were used in any other crimes in the country. The arrested suspects appeared in various courts around the province.
The Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni applauded these successes that were conducted over the past weekend. “This is just a taste of what we can expect over the Festive Season. We will be increasing our operations throughout the Province and you can expect to see more police officials on the street. We will limit the opportunity for criminals to commit crime or flee after they have committed a crime,’ she said. – South African Police Service