The South African Police Service (SAPS) said that on Tuesday evening (28 October 2025), a multidisciplinary team led by Crime Intelligence Head Office inclusive of Gauteng Organised crime unit, SAPS JHB K9 and members of the Local Criminal Record Centre (LCRC) were following up on information of drugs that were being stored at a plot in Blue Hills, Midrand.

According to further investigation, the drugs were brought into South Africa from a neighbouring country and were destined for Cape Town, Western Cape.

The cocaine was found hidden in a storage room on the identified plot.

A 56-year-old man who is believed to be the owner of the plot has been arrested and the cocaine weighing about 80 kg has been seized.

The suspect is expected to appear before the Midrand Magistrate’s Court later on this week, on a possible charge of possession of drugs as well as dealing in drugs.

The huge cocaine seizure comes two weeks after a massive R65 million drug bust off Durban Harbour on 12 October. In that incident, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) led an intelligence-driven raid on a vessel, seizing thirty bricks of narcotics from its refrigeration unit.

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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) said its Durban Customs office conducted a collaborative intelligence operation in the early morning of 12 October, leading to the seizure from a refrigeration unit of the vessel.

A Customs marine unit patrol vessel was used to intercept a vessel near the Fairway Bouy at Outer Anchorage about 4 nautical miles of the East Coast of Durban. The Enforcement Team intercepted the vessel as it was entering the port and escorted the vessel to its berth. The Enforcement Team Boarded the vessel, interviewed the Master, and examined documentation to identify the location of a profiled container.

The container was located and resulted in one positive detection of bricks of suspected narcotics, SARS said in a statement.

The drugs were handed over to the South African Police Service’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) for further investigation, prosecution and destruction.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter expressed his gratitude to the SARS Customs and other law enforcement agencies for their work. Customs demonstrated its gallantry by working so hard and in the dead of night, he said. “This speaks to an unwavering commitment by SARS to protect our borders and keep at bay all criminals that are bent on shipping harmful substance that cause unmitigated suffering for our inhabitants.”

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All told SA Army soldiers from both the regular and reserve forces confiscated R5.8 million worth of contraband and drugs from smugglers, with Mozambicans attempting to enter South Africa illegally across the KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga borders the biggest culprits.

Drugs valued at just over R3 million were seized in three provinces, with the largest haul (R2 million) seized in Mpumalanga last month. Contraband worth R2.8 million was recovered by soldiers, with the majority of that being seized in Limpopo (R2.4 million).

In August soldiers on the border protection tasking Operation Corona confiscated narcotics worth just under R800 000.

Illegal immigrant apprehensions in September totalled 322, according to statistics from the Joint Operations Division of the SANDF – well up from the 64 detained in August, but still short of the 456 handed to Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials and police in July.

At 222, Mozambicans were the single largest contributor to the month’s illegal immigrant apprehensions with Mozambicans stopped by soldiers on the KwaZulu-Natal border adding, along with Swazis, 36 to that number. Twenty-three Basotho and six Batswana also found themselves in custody ahead of deportation to their home countries.

Soldiers on land borders with Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique recovered livestock (cattle and small stock such as goats and sheep) worth R1.1 million in September. Cattle all told valued at over R500 000 was moved to police and other compounds after being found illegally on South African pastureland bordering the same three countries.

No livestock was reported recovered in August by the Joint Operations Division of the SANDF, nor were any firearms seized.

In September, soldiers also prevented an unknown number of stolen vehicles valued at R7.9 million from illegally exiting South Africa via the Mpumalanga/Mozambique and Limpopo/Zimbabwe land borders. This compares with R1.8 million worth of stolen vehicles recovered in August and R8 million in July.

Joint Operations further reported the apprehension of 36 “criminals” attempting to reach Lesotho and Mozambique in September. A total of 27 criminals were apprehended in Operation Corona patrols in August.

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On 5 June 2025, a Nigerian national aged 42 years traveling from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was apprehended by SAPS officers. A medical x-ray of the individual indicated he had ingested more than 70 pellets of suspected cocaine. Five days later, a Brazilian female aged 30 years also traveling from Sao Paulo was intercepted after she offered to have ingested more than 100 capsules containing cocaine in her stomach. Later in the same day, an Ethiopian citizen, aged 57, was arrested when he tried to board an aircraft, and more than 90 kilograms of Khat was found in his luggage.

These back-to-back activities demonstrate an SAPS operational realignment – one that prioritizes intelligence-driven interventions, medical screening, and surveillance profiling at entry points. In the last six months alone, more than 23 drug traffickers were caught at OR Tambo International Airport, as reported by SAPS. This strategic focus on transit nodes is increasingly yielding value in interdicting international drug cartels trying to exploit the geography of South Africa as a transit and consumer market.

A strategic response to a complex threat

South Africa’s position as a regional logistics hub, with first-world infrastructure, road network, and airports, has seen it become a valuable prize for international narcotics traffickers. Traffickers from West Africa, Latin America, and Asia have availed themselves of this advantage for decades, making use of Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport as a central facilitation point for the smuggling of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and cannabis into and through the Southern African region.

However, recent SAPS operations show a better comprehension of trafficking dynamics and an emphasis on dismantling these sophisticated networks.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), better known as the Hawks, in partnership with SAPS Crime Intelligence and the Border Management Authority, has ramped up counter-narcotics efforts. Body scanning technologies, canine units, and undercover operatives are now playing a central role in exposing drug couriers. These units

work not only to intercept the drugs but to trace the broader syndicates behind the operations.

Arrests, seizures, and convictions: By the numbers

Recent available statistics reveal an unequivocal image of advancement. The SAPS Annual Crime Report 2022/23 reports:

A combined total of 259,698 drug-related arrests throughout the nation were executed.

Over 2 300 kilograms of drugs, such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy, and mandrax, were confiscated.

Gauteng Province, where OR Tambo is located, consistently figures in the top three provinces for drug-related arrests.

Although these figures are lower than in years of pandemics – at least, the pre-COVID-19 pandemic years, by virtue of mobility restrictions – are once more rising as global travel picks up following COVID-19. But the highlight of 2025 is the accuracy of SAPS. Instead of prioritizing merely low-level users and dealers, SAPS appears to be targeting the higher-valued connections along the trafficking supply chain.

Regional trends and global supply chains

South Africa’s drug problems can’t be viewed in isolation. São Paulo, Brazil – where two of the recent drug mules originated – is a notorious hub for cocaine production and trafficking. The infamous “Cocaine Air Bridge” between Brazil and Africa has been in operation for decades, as West African cartels utilize mules to ship drugs to Johannesburg for ultimate distribution to Europe or Asia.

Meanwhile, the interception of a courier carrying 90 kilograms of Khat – traditionally trafficked from East Africa – illustrates the role played by OR Tambo as a transcontinental node, not just for Latin American cocaine but also for African-borne stimulants. Khat, legal in parts of East Africa, is regulated in South Africa and Europe for its amphetamine-like effects.

SAPS’s increased scrutiny at OR Tambo is a message to local drug cartels and international players alike: South Africa is no longer the soft touch that it once was.

Intelligence-driven policing: A turning point

What’s new about this latest burst of arrests is SAPS’s open departure from and alignment towards intelligence-led policing, a method promoted by security experts for years but always adhered to as nothing more than lip service previously. SAPS appears to be learning from previous mistakes and international best practice, utilising data analysis, inter-agency liaison, and profiling programs in order to improve targeting.

During an interview last year, SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola underscored that the department was “transiting from reactive policing to proactive, intelligence-driven enforcement”.

The OR Tambo arrests now validate this transition. They illustrate SAPS isn’t sitting around waiting for tips or informants but is actively monitoring flight routes, drug use patterns, and travel habits.

Further, the cooperation of SAPS with foreign law enforcement organizations like INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and regional task forces like SARPCCO (Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation) has been enhanced to better share intelligence. Such arrangements facilitate monitoring of courier activity across borders as well as pre-emptive interdictions.

Challenges remain

While it has this momentum, SAPS’s war on drugs also has its pitfalls. Corruption at ports of entry, under-serviced border posts, as well as the forensic analysis and court backlog continue to hinder mass dismantling of drug syndicates.

To this is added the issue of drug addiction and growing domestic demand for drugs. The 2023 UNODC World Drug Report signaled a new cocaine market emerging in southern Africa, and South Africa is no exception. Domestic gang networks, particularly in the Western Cape and Gauteng, are still squarely in the synthetic drug and street sales business, fueling crime and addiction.

To secure victory in the drug war in the long run, there should be added prevention, rehabilitation, and public information to complement law enforcement. Prevention programs among youth and high-risk populations must be undertaken to reduce demand and end the cycle of drug addiction.

A new phase in the Drug war

The recent police arrests at OR Tambo International Airport are more than another police triumph – they are a turning of the tide in the struggle for power in South Africa’s long and bloody war against drugs. SAPS, through advanced planning, international cooperation, and intelligence-driven operations, is starting to get the better of the crooks.

With more than 23 drug runners intercepted at OR Tambo in just six months and an added focus on high-impact interventions, the SAPS is combating its way back. Despite challenges galore, these raids are a sign that South Africa is no longer simply a transit point for global drug cartels – but is fast becoming a stern front in the global war on drugs.

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Police Minister Senzo Mchunu commended the multi-disciplinary operation, which involved the Hawks, Standerton K9 unit, Crime Intelligence, and private security firms.

The operation began on 4 April 2025, following intelligence about suspicious activity. A search warrant led to the discovery of a storage facility containing chemicals, machinery, and equipment used for drug production. Four Mozambican nationals were arrested, all of whom were illegal immigrants.

Further investigations revealed a farm housing another drug lab, leading to the arrest of a Mozambican couple – parents of one of the suspects previously arrested, the SAPS said. The total value of confiscated items from these locations was approximately R20 million.

On 8 April, the SAPS executed additional search warrants after receiving intelligence about two more laboratories in the area. At one residential address, police seized a tablet pressing machine, disassembled machinery worth over R2 million, and finished powder products valued at R28 million. Three South African suspects were arrested during this phase of the operation.

Authorities confiscated several luxury vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz containing R3.6 million in cash. Other vehicles and equipment were also seized as part of the investigation.

The suspects appeared in the Standerton Magistrates Court on 7 and 10 April. Eight individuals remain in custody and are set to appear for a formal bail hearing on 25 April.

Mchunu highlighted the need to increase law enforcement capacity to combat drug-related crimes effectively. He called for municipalities to monitor activities in rented spaces and emphasised regular raids at taxi and bus ranks to curb illegal activities.

Mchunu also noted that most suspects arrested during these operations were illegal immigrants. He stressed the importance of securing borders and addressing immigration concerns to protect South African citizens.

Since August 2024, SAPS has uncovered several drug labs across South Africa, including notable busts in Groblersdal (R2 billion in July 2024), Tshwane (R100 million in November 2024), and Kibler Park (R4.5 million in December 2024). Over three years, drugs worth R5.2 billion have been destroyed.

Mchunu urged communities to collaborate with law enforcement by reporting suspicious activities. “The fight against drugs requires all hands on deck,” he said.

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Following extensive surveillance conducted on the premises, a multi-disciplinary team comprising of the National and Provincial Organised Crime Investigations (Narcotics units), National Counter Narcotics, Diepsloot and Westrand Tactical Response Teams (TRT) and West Rand K9 unit obtained a search and seizure warrant.

The takedown on Wednesday 27 November led the team to seize various chemicals, drug manufacturing equipment and final product which was confirmed to be methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth or tik.

The team also seized cash, believed to be the proceeds of crime, and arrested a 39-year-old Mexican national.

The suspect is expected to appear before the Atteridgeville Magistrates Court on charges of dealing in and manufacturing of drugs as well as for the contravention of the Immigration Act, the SAPS said.

Numerous drug laboratories have been uncovered this year. For example, on 29 September police raided a mandrax lab in Limpopo, seizing drugs valued at R4 million and arresting three suspects. In August, police uncovered a drug lab at a plot in Douglasdale, Johannesburg, with drugs and processing machinery estimated to be worth R80 million. The lab was discovered through the Organised Crime Unit and Police Emergency Service (PES) Flexi Team. More than a dozen drug labs have been discovered by the police in Gauteng in the last eight months.

The biggest bust came on 19 July when police discovered a sophisticated drug lab in Groblersdal. Four suspects including two Mexican nationals were arrested in an intelligence driven operation, which uncovered large quantities of chemicals used in the manufacturing of illicit drugs, and crystal meth with an estimated street value of R2 billion was seized.

At the time, Gareth Newham, Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, noted that “the size of the operation and amount of chemicals seized, it’s most likely part of a large and sophisticated syndicate. That Mexicans were arrested shows a transnational organisation.”

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Back in 2004, heroin cost about R215 a gram in Cape Town. A recent study showed that in 2020, it was just R123 on average in the same city. If we factor in inflation over this period, then this means that the real price of the drug is about a quarter what it was in 2004. (A gram is typically about three or four hits or highs for injecting users.)

This sharp decline in price has gone hand in hand with a large increase in heroin use over a similar period.

Most registered rehabilitation centres are monitored by the SACENDU project, which is run by the South African Medical Research Council. Back in 2006, only 6% of people who were admitted to SACENDU-linked rehabs were there because of opiates (a class of drug which includes heroin). By 2023, that figure had tripled to 17% according to Jodilee Erasmus, a scientist at SACENDU. Most opiate-related admissions are caused by heroin, she says.

Annual police cases linked to heroin shot up over a similar time frame, as did the share of medical scheme members seeking treatment for opioid use disorder.

By 2020 there were an estimated 400,000 people using heroin daily across South Africa. Nigeria, which is one of the only other African countries to have data on national drug use, has fewer than 90,000 users, though it has a much larger population.

Treatment centres find that most users in South Africa smoke the drug, though a large minority also inject it. In many cases, people transition from smoking to injecting, which allows the drug to go straight into the bloodstream, delivering a more potent high.

Europe’s drug markets and South Africa

In the 1990s, the domestic heroin market was primarily concentrated among white people in Hillbrow. However, as the drug got cheaper it began to proliferate across poor rural settlements and urban townships, where it is known locally as nyaope.

(Nyaope is commonly reported to be a unique substance made of various ingredients, but a recent laboratory analysis of the drug found that it is mostly high-grade heroin.)

Why did the market change? Much of this has to do with South Africa’s changing role in global smuggling networks.

Heroin is made from the opium poppy plant. The plant is typically cultivated in Afghanistan and then refined into heroin in neighbouring Pakistan. To get the drug from there to consumers in Europe, smugglers have traditionally driven it across Pakistan’s border into Iran, onward to Turkey, and then into Greece or Bulgaria.

But in 2015, the United Nations published a report which stated that drug syndicates had been pivoting away from this land route. Instead, they were increasingly using ships to transport the drug along a variety of different channels (collectively known as the “southern route”).

A report by Enact highlighted one of the pathways along the southern route, which is to ship the drug along the Indian Ocean to east African countries like Tanzania or Mozambique, and then drive it down to South Africa. From there it’s re-exported to Europe either via boat or plane (something which is made easier by South Africa’s extensive trade connections with Europe).

Central nodes in this smuggling network include the harbours in Durban and Cape Town, a dry port in Johannesburg called City Deep, as well as OR Tambo airport.

While interviews with people in the criminal trade suggest that the southern route became more popular from as far back as the mid-1990s, police seizures of heroin in eastern Africa only shot up from around 2010, which is roughly when the European Union Drugs Agency says the route became more important.

In South Africa, this spike in heroin seizures happened a little later, from about 2013, though there had been incremental growth since the late 1990s.

As the volume of heroin transiting through eastern and southern Africa escalated, drug syndicates found it increasingly profitable to develop spin-off markets for local consumption, making the drug more widely available and affordable throughout the region.

Not everyone gets hooked

The supply of cheap heroin only tells part of the story. It doesn’t tell us why so many South Africans have been drawn to the drug in the first place. A popular explanation is “peer pressure”.

“Usually, a person will pinpoint peer pressure to say this is what got me started [on heroin]”, says Xikombiso Valoyi, a social worker at the Community Oriented Substance Use Program (COSUP) in Tshwane. The reason, he says, is that “they had friends with them when they started”.

However the explanation is incomplete, he says, because “the real question becomes ‘why did they stay?’”

Valoyi, who works with drug users across several Tshwane townships, notes that in contrast to what is often believed, many people who try heroin don’t continue using it. A group of friends who start experimenting with the drug (often in their teenage years) slowly withers down to one or two people over time, he says.

There are several reasons why these remaining people may continue using, but Valoyi notes that psychological stress often plays a role. “It’s as if the problems and traumas that they have – the things that were in their minds for a long time – cool down [when they take heroin],” he says.

The result is that “they keep going back to this one source of calmness and quiet,” says Valoyi. “It becomes like medication.”

Indeed, a study published earlier this year found that people who recently used illicit drugs in South Africa were more likely to have experienced traumatic events like intimate partner violence.

Alongside the psychological dimension, those who continue to use heroin also become increasingly physically dependent over time. For some heroin users, withdrawal can kick in just a few hours after their last dose. Symptoms can include muscle cramps, fatigue and difficulty sleeping. This means they need to take the drug several times a day to cope.

While it’s often assumed that such people spend their days lazing about or stealing, research in Durban’s townships shows that heroin users on the street often have to work hard to ensure that they can buy multiple doses a day. This work often includes collecting and selling scrap metal, washing cars and cleaning yards.

As one heroin user told the researchers in Durban: “If someone wants work done they ask us … They know that we are cheap because we always want money to smoke [heroin].”

Written by Jesse Copelyn for GroundUp and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.

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According to SARS, the 47 cocaine bricks – weighing some 50 kg – were stuffed in a bag that was spotted by officials and airport security on a carousel for a flight from Sao Paolo in Brazil and heading to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“SARS Customs officers inspected the luggage bag and saw suspicious looking objects in the bag. These objects tested positive for narcotics. There were no passengers accompanying the bag and no arrests were made. The South African Police Service (SAPS) will now investigate the matter after everything was handed over to them.

“Sao Paolo in Brazil is a high-risk departure point for drug mules, and accompanied and unaccompanied luggage containing cocaine. There have been several busts of drug mules at OR Tambo airport in recent weeks,” the revenue service said.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter warned that the revenue service is partnering with the Border Management Authority, the Airports Company, SAPS and the Department of Home Affairs to crack down illegality.

“This multi-disciplinary approach is having palpable results, demonstrated by arrests and interceptions recently. Through these actions, we are protecting the wellbeing of our citizens, especially young people who are our future,” Kieswetter said.

In another case, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Ethiopian Federal Police nabbed a South African drug trafficker with R5.4 million of cocaine in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A team from SAPS Gauteng counter narcotics covert intelligence flagged a 29-year-old South African woman through SAPS Interpol on suspicion that the woman was travelling to Brazil to collect drugs and fly back to SA via several countries. The woman indeed travelled to Brazil from OR Tambo International Airport during the first week of October.

According to the drug trafficker’s itinerary, she was supposed to travel from Brazil via Addis Ababa via Sudan and back to South Africa.

Hot on her heels, SAPS intelligence immediately notified the Ethiopian Federal Police about her movements.

On arrival at Addis Ababa on 12 October, she was flagged and her luggage was checked which confirmed that she was carrying 13 kg of cocaine.

She was immediately apprehended and is expected to be charged and appear in court in Ethiopia, the SAPS said.

“The cooperation between SAPS and the Ethiopian Federal Police must be commended. When African police organisations unite, more can and will be achieved by working together. We are stamping the authority of the state on a larger scale and sending out a clearer message that the long arm of the law will find you, no matter which route you utilise to try and traffic drugs into SA. We are intensifying our fight against transnational organised crime and the trafficking of drugs. SAPS intelligence is relentless in their pursuit to be one step ahead of criminals, this is commendable”, said National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola.

The SAPS said that through Interpol SA, SAPS Gauteng counter narcotics covert intelligence will work closely with the Ethiopian Federal Police to investigate the masterminds behind this consignment.

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Operation Lionfish Hurricane, conducted in April and May, saw 615 tons of drugs and illicit precursor chemicals, worth $1.5 billion, seized in 31 countries.

What the international police organisation termed “an unprecedented seizure” of 505 tons of precursor chemicals, used for drugs and explosives highlighted the “significant growth of transnational organised crime groups and their ability to make weapons”.

More than 56 tons of cocaine was confiscated along with 52 tons of marijuana, ketamine, and tramadol.

Read the full story on defenceWeb here.

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