{"id":40127,"date":"2026-07-21T07:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40127"},"modified":"2026-07-21T08:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T06:09:37","slug":"sa-shanela-operations-see-over-17-000-arrests-in-one-week","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-shanela-operations-see-over-17-000-arrests-in-one-week\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s nationwide crime operation, Shanela, sees over 17 000 arrests in one week"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">South African (SA) police say their nationwide Shanela operations have led to more than 17 000 arrests in just one week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>Between July 13 and 19, police targeted serious and organised crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, arresting more than 3 600 undocumented migrants and seizing 138 illegal firearms.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Contraband worth millions of Rand was also confiscated across the country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mukhathi states: \u201cAbout 744 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Confiscations and recoveries included 138 unlicensed firearms, including handguns, shotguns, and rifles, 1 178 rounds of ammunition, various types of drugs, and 60 hijacked and stolen vehicles.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Meanwhile in the Free State Province, police arrested 1 000 suspects during their latest Operation Shanela conducted across the province over the past week.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Suspects were arrested for rape and murder, and several motorists were nabbed for driving under the influence of alcohol.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Police confiscated drugs, explosives and counterfeit cigarettes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Police report that they were able to trace and arrest about 254 wanted suspects. These included several individuals with active warrants of arrest.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They say efforts to clean up the streets resulted in 10 suspects arrested for drug dealing, while 77 individuals were caught in possession of illicit substances.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12909,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-40127","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nationwide crime operation, Shanela, sees over 17 000 arrests in one week","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40131,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40127\/revisions\/40131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}