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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
A total of 67 illegal immigrants, among them Zimbabweans, were nabbed during a South African Police operation targeting criminal elements in Limpopo province last week.

The operation dubbed Fiela 11 saw the arrest of 1 098 suspects countrywide.

Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the illegal immigrants were arrested at Beitbridge Border Post.

He said the operation was conducted between Friday and Monday morning, but they were yet to come up with a breakdown of the nationalities of the border jumpers.

However, some of those arrested were Zimbabweans.

“These operations composed of various Police Units, were conducted in a concerted effort to uproot and deal with the common generators of crime and crime tendencies in all the policing clusters,” Lt Col Ngoepe said.

“These crime fighting machineries were executed by Operation Fiela II through the operations Bontsha Mohlala, UYA PAMWE, Vala Madi and the Intelligence-led joint clean-up operations in various ways, including road blocks, stop and searches, patrols, tracing of wanted suspects, raiding of illegal businesses and inspections of firearm dealers.”

Col Ngoepe said police would be visible on the streets, roads, residential places, farms and businesses to fight crime.

“The police were targeting a cross section of crimes including theft, illegal migration, shebeen, possession of illegal firearms, rape, murder, burglary business, common robberies to possession of suspected stolen properties and drugs among others,” said Lt Col Ngoepe.

He said they recovered an assortment of items including firearms, dagga, drugs and money (cash) from the suspects.

“Those arrested during these operations have started appearing before different magistrates’ courts throughout the province,” said Lt Col Ngoepe.