South African police confirm 14,000 arrests during 'Operation Shanela'

South African police confirm 14,000 arrests during ‘Operation Shanela’

By Mark Ogagan

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South African police have arrested over 14,000 suspects through its ‘Operation Shanela’ operations conducted throughout the country, last week.

Out of the 1,200 illegal immigrants nabbed, about 28% were picked up in Gauteng.

Two women in their 50s who were impersonating police officers and promising victims jobs if they paid R8000, were also arrested.

A Portuguese businessman who was kidnapped was rescued and a suspect arrested.

National Police Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe (Pictured), says, “We conducted more than 250 roadblocks throughout the country, amongst those arrested, 4,783 wanted suspects for crimes such as murder, rape, possession of illegal firearms and business robberies.

“We had 159 for murder. 271 suspects were arrested for rape, 121 of them were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal. We had 1 466 rounds of ammunition that were also confiscated and we also had 70 hijacked and stolen vehicles recovered during this week-long operations.”