A 44-year-old man is due to appear in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court today facing possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition. He was arrested by Phoenix police after the members attended a domestic violence complaint at Desert Palm Garden, Phoenix on New Year’s Day. All recovered firearms including rifles and pistols will be sent for ballistic tests to establish if they were used in any other crimes in the province.
On 1 January 2017 at about 19:20 Phoenix police were called to attend to a domestic violence incident at Desert Palm Garden. While the members were solving the complaint, they received information that there were illegal firearms hidden in a ceiling of the house. The members immediately started to search the house and firearms including rifle, shotguns and pistols were found in a ceiling. The suspect was than arrested and charged with possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition. Large quantities of various round of ammunition were also recovered from the house. It is believed that the suspect at one stage worked for Gun Smith and it is not clear at this stage as to how he got hold of these firearms.
The KwaZulu-Natal Acting Provincial Commander, Major General Bheki Langa commended Phoenix members for recovering such firearms and arresting the suspect. ‘I highly expressed my appreciation to the members who were alert and took necessary action in recovering these firearms. Our detectives will work closely with the Gun Smith where the suspect was working in establishing whether they knew anything about these firearms, he said.