In Ekurhuleni, a police operation on Friday led members to a house in Alberton where a suspect was arrested after being found in possession of three unlicensed pistols with live ammunition.
JOHANNESBURG – Police in Gauteng on Saturday said they had recovered 30 illegal firearms and 209 ammunition of different caliber in the space of 48-hours, mostly from tip-offs from communities.
In Ekurhuleni, a police operation on Friday led members to a house in Alberton where a suspect was arrested after being found in possession of three unlicensed pistols with live ammunition.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters an investigation was underway to determine whether the recovered firearms could have been stolen during a robbery at a security company earlier in the day.
In a separate case, police arrested a 38-year-old man in Zonkizizwe, Katlehong, who was found in possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
In Johannesburg, police and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) arrested a 33-year old suspect found in possession of an unlicensed pistol with a loaded magazine.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect was involved in illegal mining at Crown Mines, Peters said.
In Pretoria, police investigating the spate of armed robberies around Hebron and Klipgat intercepted suspicious people and found on one of them an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. A 29-year-old was arrested for possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
“Meanwhile in a separate operation on Thursday 17 September 2020, two rifles and a pistol were seized from a crime scene in Centurion after police were involved in a shootout with the suspects, where two suspects were fatally wounded and two police members injured,” Peters said in a statement.
Police said the firearms, together with many others recovered in different areas in the province between Wednesday and Friday, brought to total of 30 firearms found in a space of 48 hours.
All firearms would be sent for ballistic testing to determine whether they could have been previously used in the commission of crimes.
Police encouraged owners of illegal or unwanted firearms and ammunition to hand them in at their nearest police station, saying the firearm amnesty period ends on 31 January 2021
