Kimberley - Kimberley’s central business district on Tuesday resembled a war zone as Operation Fiela continued in the city.
This integrated exercise saw members of the South African Police Service, South African National Defence Force, municipal traffic and law enforcement officers as well as immigration officers descend upon the Craven Street Taxi Rank in a combined effort to reduce crime in South Africa.
Tuesday’s exercise forms part of a national operation and while only one arrest was made, police spokeswoman, Colonel Priscilla Naidu, said that officers involved in the operation had been able to remove a fair amount of drugs and other illicit items out of circulation.
“Our main focus today was on drugs, migrants, weapons and counterfeit goods,” Naidu said.
“Only one arrest was made but the operation was still a tremendous success. We managed to seize 87 pokes (packages) of dagga as well as a fair amount of counterfeit clothing.
“Unfortunately, no arrests were made for either of these offences because we believe that the suspects left their goods and fled the scene when they saw us coming,” she added.
“We further managed to confiscate 3 024 containers of illegal molasses which saw a Chinese foreign national issued with a fine of R2 500 for this offence.”
Naidu added that Operation Fiela was an ongoing campaign and similar joint operations were on the cards for the foreseeable future.
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