Kraaifontein police and City law enforcement officers raided backyard shacks in a Scottsdene street last Thursday as residents hurled insults at them; metres away on a yellow wall was this chilling message: “Hell is empty and all the devil’s are here (sic)”.
During the raid on Eoan Street on July 14, the officers arrested two people, including a 28-year-old man, who is a suspected drug dealer and who allegedly had a large quantity of dagga on him. They also seized mandrax and an unknown substance that has been sent away for testing.
Residents swore at the four policemen and three law enforcement officers for turning their shacks upside down.
One policeman, searching a backyard home next to a vibracrete wall, could be heard telling another officer that they had found “about 20 or 30 ‘stoppe’” of dagga.
They also found a blue substance, which an officer said would be sent to a lab for testing as none of them knew what it was.
One officer found a duffel bag with an undisclosed amount of money in it, in the alleged dealer’s shack.
During the raid, a man emerged from underneath a bed and escaped. The officers had been on patrol in the area and searched the Eoan Street backyard shacks after a suspect they were chasing dumped a suspicious package on the roof of one of them.
The officers refused to speak to the Northern News, and we had to rely on information they relayed to one another from both sides of the Vibracrete wall at the scene. Police spent about 45 minutes combing the area.
Later that same day, we asked Kraaifontein police station commander Brigadier Gerda van Niekerk one question: “What did the police find?” She asked that we send our question to her in writing. We emailed it to her a few minutes later.
We phoned to make sure she got it. We phoned the next day to remind her about it. But by the time this edition we to print, we were still waiting for a response.
Kraaifontein law enforcement said they could not comment as it had been a police operation.
Parow police were more forthcoming – two of their officers had backed up the Kraaifontein and law enforcement officers, and, in a statement, Parow police spokesman Captain Kevin Williams said police had confiscated 95 mandrax tablets, hidden in two bread bags, and arrested two people.
Captain Williams said the money in the bag – he wouldn’t say how much there was – had been sent for forensic testing.
* Brackenfell spokeswoman, Warrant Officer Erica Crous, said two men and a woman, stole two cameras, each worth R1 200, from a 56-year-old man’s home in Mirte Street, Eden Park, on Monday July 11.
He watched on a third camera as the two men handed the cameras to the woman, who had been waiting outside the home. The police are investigating a case of burglary and theft.
* Kuils River police station commander Colonel Pieter Gallant said two burgalries had been reported at Kuils River Primary School and Sarepta Secondary School on Friday July 15 during the afternoon. Police are investigating.
It was not clear what had been taken at the schools, but the safety gate and some doors at Sarepta Secondary had been damaged, said Colonel Gallant.
Sarepta Secondary principal Daryl William said the intruders had forced the main security gate and stole it. They also broke into one of the classrooms but found nothing to steal.
The Kuils River Primary principal was not available at the time of going to print.
