More than a hundred people have been arrested and half a million rand worth of drugs confiscated during a series of gang clamp down operations in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas.
On Thursday, police raided two houses and held several road blocks in the Helenvale area in an effort to quell the recent spate of gang violence.
The series of operations is the first step towards starting a new anti- gang unit in Port Elizabeth, similar to the one launched in Cape Town last year.
Since December 3, police have held several operations and confiscated R500 000 worth of drugs while arresting 119 people for various gang related crime in the Northern Areas.
The operations are part of police Minister Bheki Cele intervention plan aimed at stopping the scourge of gang-violence plaguing their communities.
Cele visited the Northern areas in December where he spoke at the Chatty Community Centre in Bethelsdorp together with National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, as well as Safety and Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana.
Provincial police spokesman Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana, said that of the 119 people arrested, 40 were wanted in 34 pending gang related cases and the remaining 79 people for various crimes linked to gangsterism such as drug dealing.
“The cases and arrests are all linked to the gang activity in areas such as Helenvale, Gelvandale and Bethelsdorp.”
Kinana said that the everyday members of the Tactical Response Team, National Intervention Unit, Crime Combating Unit and K9 Unit meet to analysis crime trends.
The drugs recovered include cocaine, tik, mandrax and schedule 5 pharmaceutical drugs.
In addition, 10 suspected stolen firearms and 122 rounds of ammunition were also confiscated. During Thursday’s raid, police concentrated on the Helenvale area targeting a house in Blesbok Street and another in Voisen Road.
“Our focus is firearms and drugs. For these two raids we attained search warrants based on information that was received,” he said.
As police arrived at the houses in convoy, residents lined the streets to watch the searches with some screaming and shouting at police.
A Port Elizabeth K9 Unit explosive detection dog, Max, was sent into the houses to sniff out stashed firearms together with the drug detection dog, Charlie. Nothing was found during the raid but residents appear to have different views of the operations.
“We support this fully and want to see it happen more. It is good that they are here,” a resident who declined to be named for her safety said.
Another resident said that it boiled down to police harassment as police kept raiding the same houses – never finding anything.
Elaine Petrus, 47, who lives in one of the houses that was raided, said that she had been raided five times in recent months - each time finding nothing.
“I am not angry and understand that the police are just doing their job. I tell them every time that they can come in and search but they are not going to find anything,” she said.
“It is irritating that they keep coming to my house but I understand that they are just doing their jobs. I have six children and this is for their benefit. Hopefully one day they can play outside without worrying about being shot.”
Kinana said the raids and deployment were based on tip offs, crime intelligence information as well as daily crime trends.
“All these factors allow us to deploy teams of highly trained members to these areas. We need the community to keep giving us information so that we can keep doing what we do,” he said.
“Since the operations, we have seen a noticeable decrease in gang related murders in the area. It is clear that operations are having a great impact.”
Asked about the Metro’s ShotSpotter – a gunshot detection system used to pinpoint the locations of gunshots -, Kinana said that the results have been great.
“This system has proven to be very useful and is beneficial to policing. We have made several arrests due to the system and it continues to help us in speedily responding to active shootings,” he said.
Kinana said that the operations were overseen by provincial police head Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga who had deployed senior officials to the Bay to spearhead the operations.
On the back of Cele’s visit, the police portfolio committee also visited the Bay and spoke to several community leaders about issues plaguing the Northern Areas. Committee member Francois Beukman said that some of the issues highlighted included children as young as 13 recruited into gangs.
Operations are due to continue for months to come.