Trio crimes crackdown as police gear up for the festive season

POLICE have arrested hundreds of suspects across the country, confiscated a large number of firearms, and recovered almost 90 stolen vehicles in connection with socalled “trio crimes” over the past few months, the SAPS said yesterday.

The trio crimes interventions to halt house robberies, business robberies, and hijackings – as well as to trace and apprehend perpetrators – were yielding significant results, SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said.

The teams in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, which had the highest contributing stations in terms of reported incidents, had worked tirelessly and made notable strides during a three-month period, he said.

The teams included members from crime intelligence, visible policing, the tactical response team, public order police, the detective services, and the organised crime unit.

For the period June to August this year, they arrested more than 307 suspects, confiscated 43 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and recovered 88 stolen or hijacked vehicles.

Close to 9 000 vehicle check points were conducted with more than 60 000 vehicles, 163 000 people and 3 000 premises searched.

“The above mentioned activities are going to be intensified with joint operations with our colleagues from various other government departments as we head towards the festive season in a few weeks’ time,” said Naidoo.

“While we gear up for these operations we call on all people in South Africa to continue assisting the police in its efforts to combat crimes. Some of the ways people can be of assistance is to remain vigilant at all times and provide the police with information on all criminal activities.

“People can call our Crime Stop number 08600 10111. Callers may remain anonymous and all information will be treated with strictest confidence,” Naidoo said.