Hotspots for drugs crimes haunt police
Riverlea, Eldorado Park, Westbury top
Drug-related gang violence continues to be on the rise in Gauteng and it has escalated to point where police in the province are on the back-foot despite their efforts to curb the scourge.
This is according to Gauteng police head of organised crime investigation Brig Pulane Gopane.
She said places such as Eldorado Park, Westbury and Riverlea were hotspots for gang-related shootings.
Speaking to Sowetan, Gopane said as much as police are visible on the ground and there is an anti-gang unit that has been deployed in hotspot areas to nullify gang shootings, the attacks seem to be spreading uncontrollably.
She said at the centre of the ongoing shootings is the peddling of drugs and lack of information from community members due to fear of reprisals.
“We are doing well [in dealing with the shootings]. We have our crime intelligence on the ground, visible policing and local stations assisting us. Once a case is reported we do our investigations and present our cases in court. Most of our cases are enrolled,’’ she said.
“The gang-related violence is revolving around Eldorado [Park], Westbury and Riverlea. The people in these communities know each other and some are fearful to speak out about the crimes they have seen. The witnesses and suspects live in the same area but we are trying our best to strengthen our investigations.’’
Gopane said one of the contributing factors to gang shootings was the fight over territories and the selling of drugs between the Fast Guns and Varados. She added that becausemost of the youngsters were unemployed, they were easily recruited into selling drugs and joining gangs for survival.
“It is a continuous thing [drug-related gang shootings]. I cannot say it is stopping. You can arrest one person today for selling drugs but that person will be easily replaced. When we do a background check on these gangs, we discover some of the members say that they are selling drugs because their father was a drug lord.
“We cannot win this battle alone, we need other departments on board,’’ said Gopane.
Last month, community members said they were increasingly losing faith in the police as drug gang clashes continued to claim more lives in Westbury, Riverlea and Eldorado Park.
The three areas are experiencing a rise in drive-by shootings as rival gangs continue to fight for drug turf control.
To combat the violence, Gopane said the narcotics and anti-gang unit teams in her division were on alert to pick up any threat that involves a group or syndicate.
“The police stations deal with day-to-day operations of arresting people who sell drugs. My team deals with groupings, syndicates and the real dealers. We pick up the threat, analyse it, study the trend and modus operandi and investigate,’’ said Gopane.
Gopane also said she has set up a priority committee within her unit to deal with the drug gang clashes. The committee consists of officials from the departments of social development and education, and community leaders.
The organised crime investigation unit deals with crimes committed by a group or syndicate for financial benefit. The unit consists of a narcotics team, anti-gang unit, projects department and a team that focuses on illicit businesses.
Some of the crimes that the unit investigates include ATM bombings, blue light robberies, kidnappings, drug syndicates and online robberies.