Following complaints by residents of Warri, Ughelli and environs over the rising rate of crimes, operatives of the Delta Police Command have raided criminal hideouts, arresting 59 male criminal suspects and 94 commercial sex workers.
Breakdown of the suspected criminals arrested included armed robbers, cultists, and kidnappers who were caught with arms and ammunition.
The arrests followed the directive handed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police operations, DCP Johnson Adenola, for a massive raids on areas complaints had emerged from.
As a result, on May 1, police operatives were drawn from the command’s Operations Department, SIB, Dragon Patrol, Safer Highway, Raiders, CP D-Coy Squad and Rapid Response Squad (RRS), led by the Commander Dragon Patrol, CSP Graham Imade, and deployed to the affected areas.
According to Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bright Edafe, the operatives “embarked on an intensive confidence building patrol, stop-and-search, and show-of-force while acting on credible intelligence reports.
“The Commander led raids on some identified criminal rendezvous at Evwreni, East-West Road, and other black spots all in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state.”
He said in the course of the raids, 59 male criminal suspects and 94 female suspected commercial sex workers were arrested.
He added that exhibits recovered from the suspects included: three pump action guns, one locally-made cut-to-size gun, one dagger, 10 live cartridges, one suspected stolen unregistered Toyota Venza and one unregistered Mercedes Benz.
Other items recovered were: one Peugeot car with Reg. No. KJA 98 GE, nine cups of Loud, Codeine syrup, sachets of Swinol, 20 capsules of tramadol and 31 wraps of weed suspected to be Indian hemp.
DSP Edafe further disclosed that “the 94 commercial sex workers have been charged to court alongside some of the male suspects, while others have been transferred to the command headquarters for further investigation.”
He quoted the DC Operations as directing the team to “sustain the tempo and ensure that sanity is completely restored in the areas while calling on members of the public to make available any useful information that will help the police in the fight against crime and criminality.”
