Five men have been arrested by Operation Vala uMgodi operatives while they were busy with either open cast mining activities or with the separation process on a makeshift slope table in identified illicit mining hotspots.
Joint operation members and stakeholders conducted foot, vehicles and air-to-ground drone patrols in Beatrix Mine Old Shaft 4, Phomolong informal settlement, and Moshoeshoe Drive in Thabong and seized gold-bearing material weighing 180,64 kg, as well as gold-processing equipment such as steel plates, stumpers and stumper pots, garden spades, and shovels.
“The foreign nationals aged between 27 and 35 years were immediately placed under arrest, and case dockets for possession of suspected gold-bearing material with additional charge of contravention of the Immigration Act were opened at the Thabong, Theunissen, and Welkom Police Stations,” says Lt. Col Thabo Covane, police spokesperson in the Free State.
Operational activities continued in other areas to address other factors contributing to illicit mining; second-hand goods compliance inspection took place in both Odendaalsrus and Hennenman.
A 38-year-old man at the Bismillah Wholesale and Supermarket in Church Street, Odendaalsrus, and 34 year old man at the Hennenman Supermarket in Steyn Street were arrested for possession of illicit cigarettes and contravention of Medicines Act 101 of 1965, for the selling of scheduled substances.
The police confiscated different brands of cigarettes such as Chief, Remington Gold, Sahawi, Ossam, Cape, and Stix with total sale estimated at R104 060.
Medicines such as prohibited Betasol and boxes of Adco-dol pain killers, and various hubbly bubbly flavors with total sale price of R11 450 were also confiscated.
All arrested suspects will appear before court soon.
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