Angola and Argentina crackdowns expose secrets about drug mule syndicates operating via South Africa

Suspects were arrested in Argentina earlier this year in a crackdown on drug mule activities with ties to South Africa. Picture Argentina government website. In January 2025 police in Argentina announced they had made arrests in connection with a drug mule syndicate that has links to South Africa. Picture Argentina government website.jpg

By Caryn Dolley

25 May 2025

Several arrests, mostly in Brazil but also in countries such as Argentina and Angola, demonstrate how South Africans are used by transnational crime syndicates to traffic illegal narcotics.

South Africa keeps surfacing in other countries’ crackdowns on crime aimed at “couriers”, also known as drug mules, who travel as passengers on planes while concealing illicit drug consignments.

In about four months until the end of 2024, there were at least 11 arrests at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport that had ties to São Paulo in Brazil.

And the situation has persisted. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni recently told Parliament that the State Security Agency had cooperation agreements with various countries, including Brazil, to try to tackle transnational crime.

Issues concerning drug mules have also been flagged. “In this regard, intelligence profiling is conducted to identify patterns and trends and high-risk flights and nationalities,” Ntshavheni said. “These flights and passengers are frequently monitored.”

Read more: Brazil’s drug mule boom hits SA — multiple arrests and cocaine worth millions seized

This means that intelligence agents are keeping tabs on some passengers on planes.

Ntshavheni said that if a traveller was deemed to be acting suspiciously, their details were submitted to the airport where they were destined to land ahead of their arrival. This is how authorities at airports sometimes know which passengers to search.

The South African Police Service announced in March that two suspected mules had been detained at OR Tambo airport. That brought to at least five the total of such arrests at the airport since the start of this year.

A Brazilian man (24) and a South African woman (51) were detained after travelling on the same flight from São Paulo.

“A medical examination confirmed that both suspects had ingested ‘bullets’ suspected to contain cocaine,” the police said. “In addition, police discovered and confiscated more cocaine concealed inside the suspects’ luggage.”

The cocaine was estimated to be worth more than R1-million.

Brazil has also recorded more arrests linked to South Africa – and is central in a web of cases connecting various countries.

drug mules Police intercepted a South African woman, who travelled from São Paulo, Brazil, on 20 March 2025. Cocaine worth more than R1-million was also seized. (Photo: South African Police Service)

The Argentinian connection

Daily Maverick has established that authorities in Argentina view some individuals from South Africa as part of a drug mule syndicate operating via their country. This is also tied to Brazil.

The Argentinian newspaper La Nación reported in January that in 2024 the US Drug Enforcement Administration warned that a South African citizen was set to travel to Argentina, where she planned to stay in a hotel. But the woman was no ordinary traveller – she was a suspected drug mule for a crime organisation trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine.

“She never made it to Argentina,” La Nación reported. “The woman was arrested at São Paulo airport when drugs were found hidden in a vest she was wearing.”

Read more: Unemployment, allure of cash sees spike in SA drug mules held in foreign jails

A joint Argentinian Ministry of National Security and airport security police press release from January picks up the sequence of events.

It said that in October 2024, police were tipped off about the possible arrival of another mule, a woman from the US. This woman was reportedly under the impression that she was travelling to Argentina to help her boyfriend of six years, whom she only knew from social media.

Police in Angola said a South African was arrested there late in 2024 with suitcases allegedly containing cocaine. (Photo: Angola’s Criminal Investigation Service)

After doing some errands in Argentina, she planned to go to Glasgow, Scotland, where they would finally meet in person for the first time. According to the statement, police officers monitored the woman leaving a hotel and taking a taxi to Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires.

She planned to board a flight to London, but officers intercepted her. During a search, they found containers of cream and jars of dulce de leche (caramelised milk) containing liquid cocaine. The woman was arrested.

Read more: ‘Drug kingpins don’t care if you’re caught’, warns mom of Gauteng ‘mule’ detained in Mauritius

According to La Nación, her purported boyfriend was suspected to be part of a drug mule syndicate with ties to, among others, “criminals based in Nigeria that allegedly financed terrorist activities”.

It was believed that the woman inadvertently became caught up in this.

Containers of cream containing liquid cocaine were found on a woman planning to board a flight to London from Argentina. (Photo: Airport Security Police)

The statement added that as well as arresting her, officers conducted raids in and around Buenos Aires and detained two other people whom they suspected to be part of the drug mule syndicate. They also seized 12 cellphones, six tablets, documentation, an electronic scale, a vehicle and more than R111,000.

The statement said that “an international criminal organisation with ties to South Africa” had effectively been dismantled. It had been trafficking drugs to Europe and Asia.

Arrested in Angola

Towards the end of 2024, South Africa featured in a separate case in Angola. This also ties into Brazil, as well as Nigeria, underscoring again how drug mules feature in transnational crime.

An Angolan Criminal Investigation Service statement issued in December 2024 said a South African citizen had been arrested at Angola’s main airport. The suspected mule was apparently caught with “two suitcases in which 26 packages of powdered cocaine weighing more than 20kg were hidden in 13… raincoats”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaGf-UkLo_k

According to the statement, the drugs had come from Brazil and were destined for Cape Town.

“[The suspect] was acting as a mule, at the behest of a Nigerian citizen who provided her with two updated passports… allowing her to travel in the months of June and November [2024] in Luanda...

“It is important to note that the accused has a history of travelling through Angola, always using the Johannesburg, Luanda and São Paulo route.”

Had the suspect managed to get the cocaine to Cape Town, she would have been paid R30,000.

Left: Suspects were arrested in Argentina earlier this year in a crackdown on drug mule activities with ties to South Africa. (Photo: Argentina government website). Right: In January 2025 police in Argentina announced they had made arrests in connection with a drug mule syndicate that has links to South Africa. (Photo: Argentina government website)

A major player

Based on these cases, Brazil is clearly a key country in terms of drug mules operating around the world. In much the same way that South African authorities have arrested suspected mules travelling from Brazil, their counterparts there have detained suspects with ties to this country.

A passenger planning to fly to South Africa – via a stopover in Qatar – was intercepted in January and 2kg of cocaine hidden in cardboard packages and wrapped in sheets was found.

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

A few weeks later, in February, a passenger planning to fly to South Africa was intercepted and 13kg of fabric that had been soaked in cocaine was found on her.

“The suspect, identified with the help of sniffer dogs and body scanners… had already been arrested at the same airport in 2017, trying to board a flight to India with drugs in a suitcase,” Brazil’s Federal Police said.

A passenger planning to board a flight to Johannesburg was arrested on 17 March. The Federal Police said he was taken to a hospital where he “expelled 96 capsules containing cocaine”.

The Federal Police also said that a passenger on a flight from Johannesburg that landed in São Paulo on 25 March was arrested and found to be “carrying more than two kilos of methamphetamine… in her suitcase”. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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The Argentinian connection

Arrested in Angola

A major player