Two suspected gang leaders were killed within minutes of each other in separate shooting incidents in Cape Town on Wednesday night.
Police said one of two men shot dead at a shopping centre in the middle-class suburb of Pinelands was believed to be Marwaan Desai‚ the alleged leader of the Nice Time Kids.
Five minutes earlier‚ a 23-year-old suspected to be a gang leader known as Bassier was killed in Bontheuwel‚ a few kilometres east of Pinelands.
“Last night at around 18:00 two men were shot and killed while sitting in their vehicle in a parking area of a Pinelands shopping centre‚” said police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut. “Two suspects fled the scene in a white Hyundai Tucson and are yet to be arrested. The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated and the motive is yet to be determined.”
A spate of recent shootings in Cape Town is suspected to be related to a turf war being waged over drug territory on the Cape Flats.
In May‚ the Sunday Times reported that security experts believe there is a link between escalating violence on the Cape Flats and security rackets vying for control of nightclubs in the Cape Town city centre.
This was after suspected gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen was shot in the neck following two shooting incidents outside nightclubs in Camps Bay and in the CBD.
Last Friday another man was killed in Elsies River. He is believed to be 30-year-old Mario Swarts‚ whom the Sunday Times interviewed in May.
Swarts proudly claimed to be a member of the Bad Boys‚ and was said to be an “assassin” for the gang.
Graphic CCTV footage from a shop near the suspected hideout of the Bad Boys on 12th Avenue‚ in Leonsdale‚ shows Swarts being shot multiple times at point blank range.
Sources suggest law enforcement agencies are on the alert for retaliatory attacks following the most recent incidents.
“Kindly be advised that serious and violent crimes are very high on the priority list of the Western Cape police and it is our mission to prevent and combat crime that may threaten the safety and security of any community. Gang-related crime and attacks are not excluded from this mission‚” said Traut.
Suspected gangsters killed as Cape Town's drug bloodshed continues
Two suspected gang leaders were killed within minutes of each other in separate shooting incidents in Cape Town on Wednesday night.
Police said one of two men shot dead at a shopping centre in the middle-class suburb of Pinelands was believed to be Marwaan Desai‚ the alleged leader of the Nice Time Kids.
Five minutes earlier‚ a 23-year-old suspected to be a gang leader known as Bassier was killed in Bontheuwel‚ a few kilometres east of Pinelands.
“Last night at around 18:00 two men were shot and killed while sitting in their vehicle in a parking area of a Pinelands shopping centre‚” said police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut. “Two suspects fled the scene in a white Hyundai Tucson and are yet to be arrested. The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated and the motive is yet to be determined.”
A spate of recent shootings in Cape Town is suspected to be related to a turf war being waged over drug territory on the Cape Flats.
In May‚ the Sunday Times reported that security experts believe there is a link between escalating violence on the Cape Flats and security rackets vying for control of nightclubs in the Cape Town city centre.
This was after suspected gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen was shot in the neck following two shooting incidents outside nightclubs in Camps Bay and in the CBD.
Last Friday another man was killed in Elsies River. He is believed to be 30-year-old Mario Swarts‚ whom the Sunday Times interviewed in May.
Swarts proudly claimed to be a member of the Bad Boys‚ and was said to be an “assassin” for the gang.
Graphic CCTV footage from a shop near the suspected hideout of the Bad Boys on 12th Avenue‚ in Leonsdale‚ shows Swarts being shot multiple times at point blank range.
Sources suggest law enforcement agencies are on the alert for retaliatory attacks following the most recent incidents.
“Kindly be advised that serious and violent crimes are very high on the priority list of the Western Cape police and it is our mission to prevent and combat crime that may threaten the safety and security of any community. Gang-related crime and attacks are not excluded from this mission‚” said Traut.