Police arrest over 2 000 foreign nationals in Limpopo for various crimes

Limpopo police have arrested over 2 000 undocumented foreign nationals for flouting immigration laws and various others crimes.

Police handcuffed 1 022 undocumented foreign nationals for contravening the Immigration laws and a further 1 130 suspects for various crimes.

Police said the foreigners were arrested in an effort to deal with the scourge of crime across the province and also enforce the immigration laws.

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The arrests were made during the ongoing joint operations that were conducted in all five District, between 7 and 9 August 2022.

Police spokesperson, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, said the suspects were also nabbed for serious crimes including murder, attempted murder, rape and other sexual offences, armed robberies, possession of illicit cigarettes and dealing in drugs among other offences.

“During the arrests, police seized firearms and ammunition, stolen vehicles, and drugs such as Crystal meth, CAT, dagga, Nyaope, illicit cigarettes and 18 plants of dagga.”

“The operational teams included the Limpopo Highway Patrol (LHP), Tactical Response Team, Crime Intelligence, Provincial Organized Crime, and detectives from provincial, district and station level as well as members attached to police stations across the province,” Mojapelo said.

The Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe has commended the teams for their relentless efforts and continued persistence in endeavouring to rid this province of any form of criminality.

“As we are in the Women’s Month, policewomen at all levels of command are also busy with Operation Basadi, which are simultaneously conducted alongside the ongoing operations and some of these arrests and confiscations are attributable to the women in blue”.

Mojapelo said the suspects, aged between 19 and 61, have already started to appear in different magistrates courts around the province and the operations to arrest more suspect are continuing.

Meanwhile, a man extradited from Zimbabwe is expected to appear at the Booysens Magistrates’ Court on Monday, for the murder of his ex- girlfriend, whose decomposed body was discovered inside her rented room on 27 January 2019.

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