More links between South Africa and global drug trafficking cartels have been uncovered

[Nat Quinn]

More links between South Africa and global drug trafficking cartels have been uncovered-Ronelle Snyders

 

A high-profile drug detection of R2 billion in Limpopo has resulted in the arrest of five suspects, some of them Mexican citizens. Three months ago, cocaine shipped from Colombia was intercepted in Natal, and cases in Brazil and Australia also highlighted drug smuggling links to SA.

A 2 billion drug lab on a farm in Limpopo with apparent links to Mexico, the interception of cocaine in Brazil possibly destined for Durban, and suspicions that Colombian traffickers are operating along South Africa’s coast show the country’s status as a player in the global drug trafficking arena.

These illegal activities also indicate confirmed and suspected links to countries known for drug crimes and cartel activities.

Daily Maverick previously reported on several global human trafficking kings operating via South Africa, their possible connections to political figures and how transnational crimes are linked to local gangs and suspects.

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola spoke during a visit by Interpol secretary-general Jürgen Stock this week and spoke highly of the recent drug disposal operations by the South African Police Service (SAPS).

“Nationally, we are drawn to more than 33 drug labs that have been successfully shut down in the country over the past 12 months,” Masemola said. “Since October 2023, police in Natal have also seized cocaine worth more than R1 million.

Contributor to violent crime
Masemola acknowledged that “drugs are one of the biggest contributors to violent crimes such as murders, rape and hijackings”. He said this is why the SAPS is “focused on working with law enforcement partners such as Interpol to eradicate the illegal trade that is plaguing our region and continent”.

During his visit, Stock gave police mobile devices that he said could be used “to verify whether someone entered the country with a stolen passport, and whether a vehicle was reported stolen somewhere else in the world”. He said the goal was for the devices to facilitate and expand cross-border investigations.

Daily Maverick determined that several drug breakthroughs in recent weeks led to arrests in South Africa of individuals from Mexico, Russia and Brazil. Cases involving the world’s main producer of cocaine, Colombia, have also emerged.

Daily Maverick can also reveal that cocaine recently discovered at a Brazilian port was destined for South Africa and showed similarities to previous supplies seized in Durban. Trans-national traders operating via South Africa seem to prefer the use of that port.

National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola (right) and Interpol secretary-general Jürgen Stock during the latter’s visit to SA this week. (Photo: SAPS)

Mexicans beaten
in Limpopo In a case that made international headlines, four suspects were arrested on Friday, 19 July after the Hawks in Limpopo were informed of suspicious activity on a farm in Groblersdal. A fifth suspect was arrested two days later.

“Four structures on the property were searched and large quantities of chemicals used in the manufacture of illegal drugs, including acetone, as well as crystal meth with an estimated street value of R2 billion, were recovered,” Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said.

Four of the suspects – Mexican nationals Gonzales Jorge and Gutierrez Lopes, and South Africans Simphiwe Khumalo and Frederick Botha – appeared in the Groblersdal Regional Court on Monday. The fifth accused, Ruben Vidal Rodriguez, who some reports say is also Mexican, appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday.

In Mexico, organized crime related to drug smuggling is a ruthless business. Mexico City’s police operations chief, Milton Morales Figueroa, was shot and killed in one of the latest shootings at officials on Sunday, July 21.

Earlier this month, Daily Maverick reported that former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was jailed for 45 years in the US for being “at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world”.

According to the U.S. government’s case against Hernández, he and his associates collaborated with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, the world’s largest drug trafficking gang.

A photograph, which US authorities considered authentic, of Hernández with cocaine dealers at the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa was shown at his trial. This has put some of the world’s top-tier traders with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel in the country. (This week, El Chapo’s son Joaquin Guzman Loera, and a partner of his, Ismael Zambada, were arrested.)

Meanwhile
, on the same day that the SAPS raided the farm in Groblersdal, two other prominent drug raids took place in the Western Cape and Gauteng respectively.

In Stilbaai, about two hours from Cape Town, officers followed up on information about suspicious activity at the port. While heading there, they noticed a vehicle with an inflatable dinghy on its trailer, matching a description of the information they received.

“The vehicle sped away and a chase ensued,” a police statement said.

Police officers managed to force the vehicle to a stop and the occupants jumped out and tried to run away. However, the two male occupants, one from Gauteng and a Russian national, were arrested. When officers searched the boat, they discovered 400 bricks of cocaine worth R252 million.

In Gauteng, a Brazilian man, Risclif Tadue Ramos, was arrested after he landed at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg when 4kg of cocaine was allegedly found wrapped around his body.

Daily Maverick reported extensively on drug trafficking between South Africa and Brazil. At the end of last year, over a period of about two months, South African police seized cocaine worth more than R360 million that arrived from Brazil.

Images of an interception of cocaine worth R151 million at the Durban harbour in December showed that the drug was packed in boxes containing images of owls.

The same packaging was also spotted in a cocaine shipment from Brazil seized at the trading port at King Shaka International Airport in Natal in October.

Meanwhile, on June 24, officers attached to the country’s Federal Revenue Service in Brazil discovered two suitcases containing 78.5 kg of cocaine.

Traders at the port of Paranaguá, where cocaine destined for South Africa had been intercepted before, broke the seal of a container at the port and placed the cocaine “in a cargo of paper rolls … which is destined for South Africa” put in.

Another container that was intercepted also had cocaine in it. The drug was hidden under frozen chicken and was destined for Libya. Photographs of the seized cocaine showed some containers depicting owls – the same packaging as the cocaine intercepted in Durban, suggesting there may be a link.

Colombia and the ‘kidnapping case’
Another country linked to drug trafficking in, or via, South Africa is Colombia. Earlier this month, Daily Maverick reported that a kidnapping case had been registered in the Cape suburb of Bishop Lavis, parts of which are known as 28s gang strongholds.

For security reasons, the names of those allegedly abducted were not published until police confirmed their identities – which has not yet happened.

In this case, there were suspicions that Colombian drug dealers, outraged by a shipment of cocaine belonging to them that had gone missing on the Western Cape coast, were involved in the case.

Cocaine from Colombia has ended up in South Africa before. In April, police announced that blocks of cocaine worth R15 million had been discovered on “a vessel travelling from Colombia to Richards Bay entrance gate”. The vessel was loaded with iron input.

Among those involved in the interception was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. At the time, a SAPS statement said a “preliminary investigation had been conducted and certain evidence had been gathered. No arrest has been made at this stage and the operation is ongoing.”

Post from Cape Town
South Africa also has extensive drug links with Australia. Information previously picked up suggests that several syndicates, including motorcycle gangs, operate between the two countries trafficking drugs, particularly cocaine.

The recent conclusion of a court case in Australia has again highlighted the links and the different ways drugs are smuggled. On July 8, the Supreme Court of New South Wales dismissed an attempt by Sydney-based Abdul Malik Shah to overturn his conviction.

Shah was convicted “of attempting to possess a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug, namely cocaine”.

He was sentenced to five years and 11 months in prison.

The verdict dismissing Shah’s appeal against his conviction explained that a package arrived in Australia from South Africa in April 2019 and X-rays were taken. Apart from material in it, a “white powdery substance” was found hidden in the inner walls of the cardboard box.

The transmitter was listed as someone in Langmark Street, Cape Town. Shah has not been charged over that parcel. But the following month, a second parcel arrived in Australia from South Africa and X-rays were also taken. Again, a “white powdery substance” was picked up hidden in the cardboard box.

“The drug was cocaine,” the ruling said. “The very powerful inference arises, in my opinion, that the sending of the two parcels, and the reaction of Shah to them, was not at all accidental; on the contrary, Shah was part of a scheme with a specific repeated modus operandi to import cocaine – a valuable smuggling when in substantial quantities – into Australia from the RSA.” Shah’s appeal was therefore dismissed.

There have been several other major cocaine raids in Australia linked to South Africa.

Daily Maverick reported that 100 kg of cocaine, valued at an estimated value of A$40 million (about R489 million), was intercepted in the cargo hold of a passenger plane flying from South Africa to Sydney in October last year. Five suspects have been arrested in Australia, and another five have been detained in South Africa at OR Tambo International Airport. DM

source:More links between South Africa and global drug trafficking cartels have been uncovered – People’s Power News (volkskrag.co.za)

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