Hawks reveal 1 400 arrests in third quarter crime stats

Hawks

Cape Town — The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, revealed the great progress the department has made in tackling high-profile crime cases.

The Hawks National head, Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya said that a total of 1 452 suspects were secured before various courts in the country, comprised of 1 409 individuals and 43 corporate entities during the third quarter, IOL reported.

Lebeya said 451 were South African nationals, while there were 958 foreign nationals. The arrests came from a number of criminal activities.

“These arrests targeted people involved in serious corruption, serious organised crime, serious commercial crime, including fraud, theft, money laundering, cybercrime, police killings, cash-in-transit robberies, other armed robberies, kidnapping for ransom, State capture, illegal mining, counterfeit goods, tax-related offences, Covid-19-related offences, drug trafficking and trafficking in persons,” Lebeya noted.

The Hakws revealed the geographical distribution of the arrest, with the North West elading the way with 919 suspects apprehended. Gauteng had 116, KZN followed with 106, Mpumalanga had 67 and the Western Cape had 57.

Among the figures for the North West include 854 illegal mining cases allocated from Operation Vala Umgodi at Stilfontein, which added to 21 arrests from organised crime projects, known as Tarantula and Grumpyface operations.

Lebeya said 86 firearms, 3 617 rounds of ammunition and up to R37 million in clandestine drugs were dismantled following four arrests.

Lebeya said that the Priority Crime Specialised Investigation (PCSI) had helped secure 96 freezing and forfeiture orders, amounting to R55 million.

According to TimesLIVE, Lebya said the Hawks secured 302 convictions in the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, including a combined six life terms plus 410 years’ imprisonment for Cameroonian siblings and another woman for trafficking victims for sex work.

“At the beginning of the third quarter, the [Hawks] was handling 18,264 dockets with the monetary value of [more than] R1-trillion. A total of 5,616 dockets with a value of R111bn involving 12,607 accused were pending before the various courts in the country. Of those under investigation, 1,836 were pending decision by the National Prosecuting Authority on whether to prosecute or otherwise,” Lebeya added.

Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Picture: X/@SAPoliceService

For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com

Compiled by Matthew Petersen

Article written by