Interpol Secretary General, Dr Jürgen Stock and a delegation from the international police organization have arrived in South Africa to look at new ways of clamping down on organized transnational crime. They are here on a two day visit (24 and 25 July 2024) to meet the local security cluster to find ways of improving intelligence as the region is afflicted by a rise in maritime smuggling.

Their visit coincides with the bust this week in Stilbaai in the Western Cape, in which police claim to have found 14 bags containing bricks of cocaine with a street value, they say, of around R252 million. The drugs were hidden in a rubber duck dinghy that had allegedly picked up the haul at sea. One of the two men arrested was a Russian national.

In another recent maritime smuggling drama off the Cape West Coast, a cocaine deal between a Colombian cartel, the Bulgarian mafia and the local 28” Gang went badly wrong. The shipment was “lost at sea” off the Simons Town coast, leaving the Colombians out of pocket and the Bulgarians with no merch. The ‘missing’ 700 kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than R1 billion, has led to shootings, kidnappings and a high level-police investigation.  A News 24 investigation says that an alleged Western Cape crime lord and his associate have now been kidnapped by the Colombians who are demanding payment or the return of their drugs.

It's not just a maritime problem. South Africa is now a “cornerstone production location for crystal meth, cat, mandrax and MDMAs, according to a report produced by the Eastern and Southern African Commission on Drugs, published in August 2023. Precursors for their synthesis are sourced from production points in both India and China, and arrive by ship through the ports of Durban, Gqeberha and Cape Town in South Africa, and Walvis Bay in Namibia.

The report says “precursors are imported also through grey channels created by the diversion of licitly-procured chemicals that are then diverted to illicit supply chains, often with the assistance of complicit, corrupted or compromised government and private sector officials”.

Last week police bust what was allegedly the largest synthetic drug laboratory in South Africa, where crystal meth, with a claimed street value of R2 billion was seized. Authorities raided a smallholding in the isolated town of Groblersdal in Limpopo province where they say produced metamamphamine on an industrial scale. Three Mexicans, the local farm owner and a labourer have been arrested and remanded in custody. Hawks national spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale says four structures on the property were searched and large quantities of chemicals used in the manufacturing of illicit drugs were found.

Mogale revealed that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has since the beginning of this year uncovered 10 clandestine drug laboratories and made 34 arrests.

In a separate investigation, seven suspects were arrested during a raid on a cannabis farm on a smallholding in the Magaliesberg mountains. Cannabis with a claimed street value of R40 million was seized, and among those arrested was was a Scot, a Russian and two men from Lesotho.

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