Cape Town - Three women were among six suspects arrested by City law enforcement officers over the weekend for possession of illegal firearms in Gugulethu, Epping and Delft.
On Friday at 2.20pm, metro police officers conducting crime prevention patrols in Epping were flagged down by a woman who complained that three men in a bakkie had tried to rob her.
When officers spotted the vehicle and pulled the driver over, they searched it and recovered two 9mm pistols, one with the serial number filed off, and 23 rounds of ammunition.
Three suspects, aged 34, 36 and 39, were arrested and detained at Elsies River police station for further investigation.
On Saturday afternoon, Leap members on patrol in Delft arrested a woman after she was found in possession of a 9mm pistol along with seven rounds of ammunition inside her purse.
She had been with her boyfriend at the time and took off when she noticed the officers but was eventually apprehended.
Safety and security Mayco member JP Smith said it was a typical operational method of gangs to use females to transport unlawful and illegal objects since the law states that searches must be performed by the “same sex”.
Smith said with law enforcement operating at a 40% gender split on average, woman law enforcement officers were readily available to prevent giving officers a “gender slip”.
Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, Leap members on patrol in Gugulethu recovered a loaded firearm and a vehicle alleged to have been hijacked.
The Leap officers initially tried to stop the driver of the Mercedes-Benz, who was driving recklessly. However, he refused to stop, and this resulted in a high-speed chase.
The driver, after losing control of the vehicle, smashed into a yard in NY84, where two men immediately fled the scene and the officers nabbed the female occupant.
Smith said a loaded firearm was found in the vehicle, after which the police confirmed the vehicle had been involved in an earlier shooting in NY5.
Smith said further investigation revealed that the vehicle had been previously hijacked and had been used in a series of armed robberies.
“The recovered vehicle and firearm will now undergo a series of forensic tests by the SAPS to link the related crimes to the identities of the suspects involved. Further breakthroughs of this investigation can be anticipated shortly,” he said.