Police have disrupted the largest supply yet of firearms to bloodthirsty gangs in the Western Cape. Ironically, the weapons came from the South African Police Service.Irshaad Laher, a Cape Town police reservist, appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court yesterday in connection with charges against the syndicate. He was granted R100,000 bail."I don't know about any single source that has ever supplied that amount in that bulk to gangs in the Western Cape," said deputy provincial police commissioner for the SAPS detective services Major-General Jeremy Vearey.Last week former police colonel Christiaan Prinsloo from Vereeniging was jailed for 18 years after entering into a plea and sentencing agreement with the state.Prinsloo admitted he had worked with Laher and a third suspect. He claimed that since 2007 they had sold 2400 weapons and an unknown amount of ammunition for R2-million to prominent gang leaders.Most of the weapons were meant for destruction and many were personal weapons handed in by citizens. Some were surplus from the state and included police and military-issue firearms.Vearey added that police were involved in "other investigations" linked to such syndicates.Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JPSmith said the city's law enforcement had confiscated more weapons in the past five months than in the preceding seven years.He said Cape Flats gangs used military-issue fully automatic assault rifles."We have seen some heavier weapons and assault weapons including R4s or R5s and AK47s. We have increasingly been issuing our people with heavier weapons, because we have been coming under heavier fire," said Smith.He said they have had to buy an armoured vehicle so personnel could safely enter "no-go" areas."There is the blood of so many people in the Cape Flats on (Laher's) hands," said Smith.Earlier this year Manenberg Community Police Forum chairman Kader Jacobs said gangsters poured into the streets "celebrating" by firing heavy-calibre weapons into the air after police operations concluded.According to police, eight children, between the ages of 15 and 17, were shot in Nyanga on Sunday. One of the children died but police spokesman FC van Wyk would not comment on the circumstances.Last year Western Cape community safety MEC Dan Plato said murders committed with a firearm increased from 22.8% in 2004/2005 to 35.5% in 2013/2014...