The head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said that the department has made incredible strides when it came to tackling high-profile criminal cases.
The Hawks National Head, Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya said that in the reporting period, a total of 1,452 suspects had been secured before various courts in the country, including 1 409 individuals and 43 corporate entities.
“Of these arrests, 451 were South Africans, while 958 were foreign nationals,” he explained.
“These arrests targeted people involved in serious corruption, serious organised crime, serious commercial crime, including fraud, theft, money laundering, cybercrime, police killings, cash-in-transit robberies, other armed robberies, kidnapping for ransom, State capture, illegal mining, counterfeit goods, tax-related offences, Covid-19-related offences, drug trafficking and trafficking in persons,” Lebeya noted.
The Hawks head also shared the geographical distribution of arrests, which showed the highest number of arrests were made in the North West, where 919 suspects were apprehended, followed by Gauteng with 116 arrests, KwaZulu-Natal with 106, Mpumalanga with 67, and the Western Cape with 57 suspects arrested.
The North West figures include 854 illegal mining cases allocated from Operation Vala Umgodi at Stilfontein, which added to 21 arrests from organised crime projects, known as Tarantula and Grumpyface operations, he added.
“During these arrests, 86 firearms and 3 617 rounds of ammunition were seized. Three clandestine drug laboratories, involving R37,713,500, were dismantled with four arrests,” Lebeya said.
The department was also able to secure 202 convictions during the same period, including 186 individuals and 16 corporate entities.
Freezing and forfeiture orders issued
Lebeya said that the Priority Crime Specialised Investigation (PCSI) had helped secure 96 freezing and forfeiture orders, amounting to R55 million.
Moreover, he said that more than R2 million has been deposited into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA).
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