Two arrested for possession of illegal firearm

Two suspects were arrested for the possession of an unlicensed firearm in Philippi on Sunday April 14.

A traffic officer, who was manning a vehicle checkpoint near the Joe Gqabi interchange, noticed a silver Toyota Avanza and stopped it.

When it was stopping, the officer noticed that the driver, who had five passengers, was hiding something under his seat.

The officer asked for a driver’s licence and the driver could not produce it. He then asked the passengers to step out of the vehicle so he could conduct a search.

The driver then confessed to hiding a firearm under his seat. The officer recovered the 9mm pistol with three rounds of ammunition.

The driver could not produce a licence for the firearm and the passengers confessed that he had bought it for R2 000 in Manenberg.

The driver and one passenger were arrested and booked at Philippi East police station.

Traffic department spokesperson, Maxine Bezuidenhout, said: “It later transpired that the driver has a previous case of business robbery and one of the passengers has a previous case of attempted murder and assault.”