New version AK-47s found

2003-01-09 17:07

Cape Town - The 280 AK-47 assault rifles confiscated at a warehouse near the Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday resembled the old AK-47, but had been redesigned to accept three different calibre bullets.

The guns, imported under the brand name Saiga from the Russian factory that manufactured the original AK-47 rifles, included versions capable of taking 7.62 calibre rounds, .233 and 12-bore shotgun rounds.

The gun dealer who allegedly imported of the guns - valued at about R465 000 - without the necessary permit, would be questioned by serious violent crime police, police spokesperson Captain Rod Beer said on Thursday.

Imported illegally

Members of the firearm control unit and border police at the airport seized the guns following a tip-off.

Beer said: "The weapons were imported into the country without the necessary permits."

The importer would be investigated in terms of the Firearms and Ammunitions Act.

Beer said police would try to establish whether the importer had links with militant groups or a private army, or whether he was simply an import agent for the latest generation of AK-47s.

Private ownership of semi-automatic assault rifles was allowed only in exceptional circumstances, said Firearm Control chief Jacques van Lill.

National police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said there seemed to be no link between the cache and an alleged rightwing plot to overthrow the government.

She said: "At this stage there is really no indication that there is a link."

Rocket launchers

Wednesday night's haul followed the seizure of an arms cache found in boxes in the garage of a Table view man who had died in an apparent hijacking on the R300 recently.

When the man's widow and a friend opened the boxes, they found cylindrical tubes, which they handed to Strand police.

Eastern Metropole police spokesperson Superintendent Riaan Pool said the tubes were identified as RPG-7 rocket boosters. Seven warheads were also found in the cache.

- News24