Cape Town – City of Cape Town enforcement agencies managed to effect 362 arrests for a range of offences over the past week.
Officers also issued 65 982 fines for traffic and by-law transgressions.
Among the arrests made was a suspected drug courier, who was nabbed after his shipment was sniffed out by metro police K9 officer Xena.
Metro police officers made 166 arrests and issued 4 117 fines over the past week.
This included a 37-year-old man for possession of drugs. He was detained at Gordon’s Bay police station.
According to mayoral committee member for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith, metro police officers were on patrol along Sir Lowry’s Pass Road on Sunday when they noticed a suspicious vehicle with dark tinted windows.
He said officers flagged down the vehicle for a routine inspection but soon noticed the driver seemed nervous.
Officers requested permission to search the vehicle and K9 Xena gave a positive indication for the presence of drugs.
An insect spray canister was found, and inside it officers discovered 28 mandrax tablets.
A second canister found on the driver contained a further 20 mandrax tablets, two packets of tik and more than R1 000 in cash.
“In recent years, criminals have had to become far more creative to avoid detection of narcotics and other illicit substances, but as K9 Xena proved once more, very little gets past her and her fellow canines.
“Our K9 unit has proven to be a very valuable resource in the fight against the drug trade.
“I also commend the officers involved for their part in this bust, but also other successes that stem from visible policing, and picking up on things that the average person likely wouldn’t even notice,” Smith said.
Cape Town Traffic Services made 79 arrests in the past week, of which 56 were motorists arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Officers also impounded 142 public transport vehicles, executed 1 179 arrests for outstanding warrants and recorded 59 294 traffic violations.
Law enforcement made 117 arrests and issued 2 571 notices.
Smith said the City’s public emergency communication centre logged 1 557 incidents between Friday and Sunday, with calls for medical assistance and by-law complaints accounting for just over 65% of all incidents.
However, prank calls had doubled this weekend from the previous weekend from 24, to 55.
“It’s mind-boggling that prank calls are still so prevalent. We’ve said it time and again – a prank call takes up valuable time that could have been spent attending to an actual emergency.
“It is simply not funny – no one is laughing, and then of course there’s also a level of abuse that often accompanies these calls.
“Our emergency operators have a very tough job, and they deal with a lot. This type of time-wasting and abuse is the last thing that they need,” Smith added.
IOL