Johannesburg – Police in Limpopo have arrested 1 022 undocumented foreign nationals and 1 130 other suspects for various crimes in that province in an effort to address the increasing crime rate across the province.
The arrests of over 2 000 people aged between 19 and 61 were made between August 7 and 9, 2022 during ongoing joint operations in five districts driven by the Limpopo highway patrol, the SAPS’s tactical response team, crime intelligence, provincial organised crime detectives as well as SAPS members from provincial, district and station-levels.
The 1 022 foreign nationals were arrested as part of efforts to enforce the immigration laws. The suspects will face charges for contravening the immigration laws.
The other 1 130 suspects were arrested for various crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape and other sexual offences, armed robberies, possession of illicit cigarettes, possession of illegal firearms and ammunition, theft of motor vehicles, possession of suspected stolen property and dealing in drugs as well as possession and dealing in dagga.
Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said police seized firearms and ammunition, stolen motor vehicles, drugs such as crystal meth and CAT, grams of dagga, nyaope, illicit cigarettes and 18 plants of dagga.
Limpopo provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe commended the teams and said: “As we are in Women’s Month, policewomen at all levels of command are also busy with Operation Basadi, which is being conducted alongside the ongoing operations.
“Some of these arrests and confiscations are attributable to the women in blue,” Mojapelo said.
The suspects have begun to appear in the different Magistrate’s Courts across the province.
The police operations are ongoing.
IOL