What started out as a routine stop-and-search by EMPD members resulted in a huge success against crime in the Ekurhuleni and Gauteng areas.
A suspicious-looking white VW Golf 6 with three occupants was stopped by EMPD Community Liaison Unit members at 9.30pm, in Katlehong, last Tuesday.
A thorough inspection of the vehicle, after the licence disc and the registration plate number did not tally, revealed that it had been hijacked in Brakpan sometime during March.
The officers managed to arrest the driver and one of the passengers.
“In-depth investigations were conducted by the metro police from the time of the arrests right into the early hours of July 13,” said Lieut Col Wilfred Kgasago, te spokesman for the EMPD.
“Upon registering the case of possession of a stolen vehicle against the pair at the Katlehong Police Station, it emerged that the arrested passenger was a wanted criminal who is suspected of a string of house robberies and hijackings in Gauteng.
“The suspect had been captured several times on CCTV cameras during house robberies in and around Ekurhuleni.”
The metro police, in conjunction with the Gauteng traffic police, were taken to a house in Dawn Park in Boksburg, where three unlicensed 9mm pistols with 22 live rounds of ammunition were discovered, as well as an Audi A1, which had been hijacked in mid-March in Pinetown.
Another stop at a house in Phumula Park, near Leondale, uncovered two more unlicensed firearms and 30 rounds of live ammunition.
The case was taken over by the Gauteng SAPS Crime Intelligence and Organised Crime Unit.
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