Another suspect has been arrested and charged alongside Gqeberha firearms dealer Karen Webb, who faces a litany of charges relating to the Firearms Control Act.
Francois Van Der Merwe was arrested in George on Monday and transported to Gqeberha, where he and Webb appeared in the Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
He was charged with the transportation of firearms throughout South Africa without an in-transit permit, failure to ensure that the firearms and ammunition possessed on the authority of the dealer's license were transported in accordance with the packaging requirements during transportation as set out in the regulations, the unlawful possession of a firearm, and the unlawful possession of ammunition.
Van Der Merwe allegedly transported a total of 658 firearms from Webb's cache to the Western Cape over two days in January.
According to the charge sheet, the firearms were transported from Webb's Arms to Pete's Gun Repairs in Sedgefield.
At the time, Webb was allegedly already the subject of a police investigation.
The case against Van der Merwe was postponed to 8 October for a formal bail application to be conducted.
Webb has previously been denied bail on two occasions.
Since her arrest in February, numerous counts have been added to her charge sheet.
The long list of existing charges includes theft, conspiracy to smuggle firearms, fraud, the unlicensed trading of firearms, providing firearms and ammunition to persons who are not allowed to possess them, and defeating the ends of justice.
Her arrest on 8 February forms part of an ongoing police investigation into how firearms got into the possession of gangsters in the city's northern areas and other provinces.
Besides 76 firearms that had been positively linked to crimes in the city's northern areas and as far as the Western Cape and Gauteng, evidence was led that suggests that 437 of the 900 firearms registered on Webbs Arms are unaccounted for, but later found.
The theft charge relates to ten 9mm Glock pistols that went missing from the Aquila Arms’ stock while the cache was stored at her premises.
In August, Webb was caught trying to smuggle a cell phone into the North End Prison where she's being kept in custody, pending the outcome of her trial.
It is understood that Webb got hold of the cell phone between being transported to and from court and hid the device inside her bra.
A spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services in the Eastern Cape, Nobuntu Gantana confirmed that the cell phone was found in Webb's possession, upon her return from court.
