Police seize illegal arms at Lanseria

A LARGE CONSIGNMENT of arms and ammunition packed into empty beer cartons was seized by police at Lanseria airport last week after it had passed through customs with documents declaring it was for demonstration and training purposes.
The police swooped on the cargo, which was covered with a tarpaulin, after being tipped off about what was regarded as an illegal consignment.
According to Sergeant Herman Esterhuizen of the West Rand police, who called in the Technical Support Services Unit to handle the matter, the weapons were part of freight on a flight from Luanda in Angola.
Among the weapons were an 80mm mortar of Chinese origin, three 12,7 mm rocket projectiles, two F1-type hand grenades, an anti-personnel mine and three 60 mm mortar bombs.
No details about the importers were available, nor was there any information available about any training programme, said Esterhuizen.
A man with a Tanzanian passport is now being sought by police, but is believed to have moved on to Lesotho.
The investigating officers are tracing him and he is likely to face several charges, the nature of which will depend on investigations, he said.
After all the weapons and ammunition had been defused by the bomb squad they were destroyed.
By Leonard Neill