Cop nabbed over theft of 18
firearms at Bellville police station
WESTERN CAPE / 20
JUNE 2018, 09:39AM / KHANYISILE NGCOBO
Cape Town - A police officer has
been arrested for theft and corruption relating to the theft of 18 firearms at
a Bellville police station, the Hawks confirmed on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old constable from
the Bellville South Community Service Centre (CSC) was arrested by the
Hawks’ National Bureau for Illegal Firearms Control and Priority violent
crime.
Hawks
spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi explained the sequence of
events leading to the arrest.
"Two firearms were seized by
SAPS Vispol members from two suspects on separate incidents in September 2017
and another in April 2018 respectively.
"Further investigations by
the Hawks revealed that the two firearms were among the 18 that were reportedly
stolen at Bellville South SAPS in August 2017."
Mulaudzi added that:
"Several firearms handed in as exhibits and deemed for destruction
apparently went missing from a storeroom at the Bellville South police
station".
The constable was then accused of
having participated in the theft of the firearms, said Mulaudzi.
He added that the missing weapons
are at the centre of a police investigation.
The officer is expected to appear
at Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
