Drug-related crime dealt severe blow
Drug-related crime in the Western Cape was dealt a severe blow during the past week, with over 1500 suspects arrested and drugs worth millions of rand seized, police said on Sunday.
“Those who thought that the festive season is a good time to indulge in drugs in this province got a wake-up call because we thought otherwise,” Lt-Col Andrè Traut said.
Police operations to root out “this phenomena”, which was responsible for fueling other serious crimes, saw a total of 1522 suspects arrested during the past week, he said.
“We are pleased with this figure, because not only did we remove drugs to the tune of R3.1 million off the streets, we prevented a number of crimes usually related with the ongoing gang activity in certain areas of the province.”
The three main “drugs of choice” seized this week were dagga (24.6kg), mandrax (34,000 tablets), and tik (crystal meth) (5.3kg).
“We have a number of similar operations up our sleeve for the week to come and will continue with our back-to-basic approach to create a safer environment for the law-abiding communities,” Traut said.