Police probe alleged drug mule arrested at OR Tambo to check for possible syndicate connections

23 Sep 2024

On Sunday, a 30-year-old Namibian woman was arrested at Oliver Tambo International Airport on suspicion of being a drug mule. In the past two months, 10 alleged drug mules have been arrested, including a woman travelling from São Paulo. Police say she ingested an undisclosed number of cocaine tablets, was transported to the hospital, given medication, after which she ejected more than 60 pellets of suspected cocaine.

Now the police are investigating to determine who the woman worked with in South Africa, São Paulo, or Namibia, and if she was part of a larger syndicate.

Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, the national police spokesperson, said in a statement that South African Police Service (SAPS), South African Revenue Service (Sars) customs, and immigration officials followed up on SAPS intelligence of a drug mule arriving from São Paulo.

Mathe added that the team immediately apprehended the alleged drug mule as she was making her way through immigration. She was then arrested and taken to a nearby hospital, where a medical X-ray confirmed and revealed foreign objects in her stomach.

“The process to release the suspected drugs from her body is under way. She has already released more than 60 pellets of suspected cocaine thus far. She is currently under police guard and custody.

“This process could take a day or two because we need to ensure all the drugs are out of her system. She will be given another X-ray to ensure that all the drugs have been ejected out of her system,” the national police spokesperson said.

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Mathe went on to say that the value of the drugs could not be determined at this time because the process of removing all suspected drugs from the suspect’s body could take a while.

“The alleged drug mule did not operate alone. Investigators must determine who she was allegedly working with within South Africa, São Paulo, or Namibia, and if she was part of a larger syndicate. The SAPS is pursuing all leads and will also contact its Brazilian counterparts to get to the bottom of the situation. South Africa is collaborating closely with other countries through Interpol to combat transnational organised crime,” Mathe said.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Cocaine’s deadly destinations – the Durban link to the bodies piling up in Brazil’s drug battles”

In May of last year, Daily Maverick reported that two cocaine consignments bound for South Africa had been intercepted in the Brazilian port city of Paranaguá amid deadly turf wars between narco-traffickers.

Investigative journalist and author Caryn Dolley reported that more drugs had been discovered and 28 people arrested as police linked murders in the Brazilian port of Paranaguá to a criminal war for control of the trade, with South Africa among the destinations.

Global drug trade

According to Mathe, this is the tenth suspected drug mule to have been arrested at Oliver Tambo International Airport over the past two months and drugs valued at over R30 million seized.

“Oliver Tambo is not the only port of entry that has reported massive drug seizures. The ports of entry at KwaZulu-Natal have registered hundreds of cocaine busts,” she said.

In July this year, a R2-billion drug laboratory bust on a Limpopo farm with apparent ties to Mexico, the interception of cocaine in Brazil that may have been destined for Durban, and suspicions that Colombian traffickers are operating along South Africa’s coast demonstrated the country’s status as a global drug trade participant. These cases also indicate confirmed and suspected links to countries known for drug trafficking and cartel activity.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Breaking (very) Bad – More links between South Africa and global drug trafficking cartels exposed”

National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola, speaking at an event during a recent visit by Interpol Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, spoke highly of the recent drug takedown operations by the SAPS.

Stock’s visit to the country’s Interpol National Central Bureau comes as the SAPS is working hard to increase its efforts to prevent and combat transnational organised crime in the country.

Back then Masemola said that more than 33 drug labs had been successfully shut down in the country in the past year. According to Masemola, since October 2023, the police in KwaZulu-Natal had seized cocaine worth more than R1-billion at the province’s sea ports.

On the arrest of the Namibian woman on Sunday, Masemalo praised the vigilance of the multidisciplinary team working tirelessly to clamp down on criminality at the Oliver Tambo International Airport.

“Our men and women in blue are hard at work intercepting hardened criminals. South Africa is not a playground for criminals and transnational organised crime. We are squeezing the space for criminals and leaving nothing to chance,” he said. DM

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