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Unmasking the narco networks — South Africa's ongoing role in global drug trafficking exposed

Unmasking the narco networks — South Africa's ongoing role in global drug trafficking exposed
On 15 December 2024, two suspected drug mules from Brazil were intercepted at OR Tambo International Airport, bringing to 13 the number of such suspects arrested over about four months. (Photos: Supplied)
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
20 Dec 2024
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In 2024 Daily Maverick exposed various drug trafficking networks involving countries including Dubai, Mexico and Bosnia, that are connected to South Africa. These examples reiterate that the country is still deeply entrenched in global narco-networks, as it was decades ago.

“The country seems not to be making a significant impact on substance use and trafficking in illegal substances.”

This is contained in South Africa’s Central Drug Authority 2023-2024 annual report.

Another section of the report says: “Once drugs enter South Africa, they are distributed through an extensive network that includes local gangs, organi(s)ed crime groups and informal dealers. 

“Major urban centres like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban serve as distribution hubs. These networks ensure that drugs reach both urban and rural areas across the country.”

This is accurate.

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

Despite many drug arrests and strong warnings from policing bosses over the years that criminals will not be allowed to treat South Africa as a playground, a lot more needs to be done to significantly weaken narcotraffickers.

What makes this arena especially tricky to crack down on is that it thrives on corruption and criminal elements in governments, and trafficking is transnational.

So, even if the South African Police Service (SAPS) ramps up efforts to crack down on drug smugglers, if other states are not doing the same, then the trafficking will inevitably continue.

Dual discoveries


Recent dual drug interceptions involve this country and Australia. Daily Maverick has before reported on its strong narco ties to South Africa.

On 13 December crystal methamphetamine, also known as tik, worth R6-million was discovered concealed in a pool, or snooker, table in a warehouse at OR Tambo International Airport.



Police said the drug consignment was destined for Australia.

No arrests were made.

Meanwhile, about a week earlier in Australia, an airline worker was arrested after a flight from South Africa when police officers found drugs concealed in shampoo. 

The Australian Federal Police said the worker was arrested for allegedly importing 4.1 litres of gamma butyrolactone.

Read more: Bad hair day — Australian airline worker arrested for drugs concealed in shampoo on flight from SA

Police there previously explained that gamma butyrolactone was “an illicit substance commonly known as liquid ecstasy or ‘coma in a bottle’”.

The dual arrests point towards the different ways dealers are moving drugs between countries.

In 2024 Daily Maverick reported on other narco matters and focused extensively on various global gangs operating via South Africa — including groups that the police did not proactively publicise.

The global ‘supercartel’


One of those syndicates has been referred to as a “supercartel” in Europe and consists of international gangs that have joined forces.

At the centre of suspicions relating to it is Edin “Tito” Gacanin of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has a Netherlands passport and whom the US accused of being one of the world’s most prolific narcotraffickers.

Daily Maverick revealed that he was involved in a cocaine consignment from Durban, which international drug syndicates seem to favour in terms of sea trafficking, and allegedly sent a pointsman there. 

Read more: Connecting the global drug trafficking dots — Durban and Dubai linked to cocaine smuggling ‘supercartel’

Gacanin’s activities suggested that the global “supercartel,” believed to be headquartered in Dubai, was operating via this country.

The pool table in which crystal meth was found at OR Tambo International Airport. (Photo: Supplied)



Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo had confirmed to Daily Maverick that the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau was aware of him.

“His name has come up as wanted in the Netherlands,” she said. “We have operations where we have been working with foreign agencies.”

Mexico’s gangs and fentanyl


Daily Maverick also reported on how increasing evidence suggested that two notorious Mexican cartels — Sinaloa and Jalisco — were among the international trafficking gangs active in this country.

This after Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya confirmed that fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is fuelling an overdose crisis in the US, has entered trafficking chains in South Africa.

Read more: Fatal fentanyl hits SA — Mexican cartels among drug trafficking gangs and money launderers ‘active’ in Mzansi

The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels were accused of flooding the US with fentanyl.

Adding to suspicions that the cartels were active in South Africa was a case involving three suspects from Mexico. They were arrested in Limpopo in July for allegedly running a large production facility linked to crystal methamphetamine.

Read more: From South Africa to Sinaloa: Jackie Selebi and the ‘parallel’ US drug trial of Mexico’s ex-cop boss

Lebeya, referencing the trio, had said they “appear to be members” of the Sinaloa cartel. The cartel was once headed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who is now serving a life sentence in a US prison.

According to US authorities, after his arrest and incarceration, his sons, known as the Chapitos or Los Chapitos (the little Chapos), took over the cartel.

The ‘big boss’ and the US


Another case that involves South Africa and global drug dealing, and which seems to have offshoots dating back decades, resurfaced this year. Muhammad Asif Hafeez of Pakistan, also referred to as “the big boss” and “number one in the world”, pleaded guilty in November to drug conspiracy charges in a sprawling US case.

According to the US, between 2013 and 2016 Hafeez and some co-conspirators had planned to set up a methamphetamine production facility in Mozambique.

Read more: Sprawling US narco case tied to SA — drug trafficking ‘Sultan’ Muhammad Asif Hafeez pleads guilty

Hafeez had been accused of conspiring with, among others, Mandrax trafficker Vicky Goswami of India, who had claimed that ephedrine linked to the facility in Mozambique would have been pushed into South Africa. Goswami has deep ties to this country. He was based in Zambia and later South Africa, and he claimed to know ANC figures.

Read more: SA’s Narcos Capture — the Mandrax trafficker and ‘wanted terrorist’ matrix haunting the ANC, Zuma, Guptas

Goswami ended up in Dubai, where he was jailed for Mandrax dealing until 2012. He headed to Kenya from where he was extradited to the US in a drug case.

While testifying in the US in 2019, Goswami said he and his associates had been hellbent on dominating this country’s drug trade.



On 15 December 2024, two suspected drug mules from Brazil were intercepted at OR Tambo International Airport, bringing to 13 the number of such suspects arrested over about four months. (Photos: Supplied)



Goswami said they even masterminded a murder in this country around 2014 “so we can put an impression in the South African drug market (that) we are not here to play”.

As for Hafeez, Daily Maverick previously referenced a 2019 Vrye Weekblad report that said Goswami, in sealed grand jury testimony in the US, alleged that members of the Gupta family were involved in money laundering on behalf of Hafeez. A lawyer for Hafeez had said his client denied knowing the Guptas. As of mid-December, Hafeez had yet to be sentenced in the US.

Brazil back in focus


While police in South Africa have not referenced the Hafeez and Goswami case, despite this country being central to it, officers have repeatedly highlighted certain incidents linked to Brazil.

In 2024 the SAPS issued a string of press releases about the arrests of suspected drug mules, with cocaine allegedly concealed in or on their bodies, at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.



On 15 December two suspected drug mules from Brazil, who travelled from São Paulo, were arrested and cocaine capsules, or bullets, were discovered in their bodies.

Their arrests brought to about 13 the number of suspected mules intercepted at OR Tambo over about four months.

Daily Maverick reported on the spate of suspected drug mule arrests at OR Tambo with ties to São Paulo, explaining that the police there had made triple the number of arrests in 2024 compared with the previous year in terms of suspects who had drugs concealed in their bodies.

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

Aside from airports, there are many other drug trafficking conduits and routes between South Africa and Brazil.

Daily Maverick has reported extensively on those.

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

Traffickers are known to use the Port of Durban to push masses of cocaine, concealed in shipping containers, into the country.

Daily Maverick previously reported that a two-decades-old cocaine-smuggling channel is in operation between the Port of Durban and the Port of Santos in Brazil. DM

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