Police have arrested more than 1000 suspected hoodlums in Kano State in an operation targeted at crushing criminals across the state.

The commissioner of police in the state, Mohammad Gumel, told newsmen on Monday in Kano that the arrests were made in the last three months.

He said among those arrested were 117 armed suspects, 25 suspected kidnappers, 17 human traffickers, six suspected cattle rustlers, 26 motorcycle thieves, 34 drug dealers, 28 suspected thieves and 27 tricycle thieves.

Mr Gumel assured that all those arrested would be prosecuted.

The commissioner said the command had adopted modern policing techniques with the aim of crushing the criminals.

On the menace of phone snatchers and thugs, Mr Gumel said that the police had dealt serious blow to them, thereby reducing their threat to the public.

“On my assumption on duty as the Commissioner of Police, I was made to understand that phone snatching, thuggery and criminal activities were jeopardising the peaceful coexistence of the people in the metropolis and some parts of Kano.

“I quickly adopted community partnership and technical intelligence strategy to address the issue,’’ he said.

He said that other criminal activities had also been curtailed in the state.

“We employed modern sensitisation strategies in collaboration with sister security agencies, and we are having dialogue with some identified criminals.

“These have yielded positive results in addressing security challenges in our state.

“We recovered guns, ammunition, motorcycles, laptops, among others, from the suspects arrested in different parts of the state,’’ Mr Gumel added.

He urged members of the public to volunteer credible information that could aid the command in apprehending more criminals in the state.

(NAN)