The South African Police Service’s Safer Festive Season Campaign is making inroads in curbing criminal activities.
The campaign has seen highly visible, multi-disciplinary law enforcement teams deployed to conduct regular vehicle and foot patrols, roadblocks, cordon and search operations and the tracing of wanted suspects.
“Safer Festive Season Operations continue to deal effectively with all crime generators to ensure that our communities and holiday makers are and feel safe during the festive season and beyond.
“Our commitment to enhance visible policing, stop-and-search operations and intelligence-driven operations persist in making inroads in the fight against crime during this period,” said Acting Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner Major General André Swart.
Operation successes include police members attached to the K9 Breede River unit seizing drugs worth R34 438 in Riverview, Worcester. The drugs found include 60g of tik, 334 tik straws, 289 Mandrax tablets, 74 tik lollies and an undisclosed amount of cash.
A 36-year-old woman was arrested for possession of drugs and is expected to appear in the Worcester Magistrate’s Court soon.
In another incident, the drug dealing underworld suffered a blow when an undisclosed amount of cash was seized in Ottery, Grassy Park.
In Gauteng, a 43-year-old suspect was arrested in Edleen by the Norkem police for the illegal possession of 23kg of ephedrine, which is used in the manufacturing of drugs.
In the Eastern Cape, 832 arrests were made in the past week for various crimes. A total of 129 of these suspects were arrested for crimes dependent on police action and 17 for trio crimes.
A total of 72 rounds of ammunition and 14 firearms were also confiscated during the period.
The abuse of illegal substances is one of the root causes of violent crime and the members of the K9 unit have been lauded for their efforts to take drugs off the streets. – SAnews.gov.za
