TENSIONS AND TRANSNATIONAL TRACKS: Biker shot dead as SA drug busts rev up global outlaw motorcycle gang fears

A biker was killed and another wounded in a shooting outside a Pretoria pub as concerns grow about rising tensions in South Africa’s biking community, just as suspicions intensify around the local influence of certain international outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Daily Maverick has established that an outlaw gang, with strongholds in Australia and the United States (US), where several of its members have been arrested for crimes, including drug-related offences, may have set up shop in Johannesburg recently.

This comes as police have been uncovering massive illicit drug factories in South Africa, which has sparked suspicions that aside from Mexican cartel links, gangs with strong Australian ties may be involved.

The shooting, meanwhile, which seems to have stemmed from an argument, happened late on Saturday, 10 October 2026, outside a Pretoria venue.

There was no indication that it was linked to drugs or international outlaw groups.

Murder and banned patches

Police spokesperson Captain Johan van Dyk confirmed to Daily Maverick on Sunday that preliminary information suggested the murdered and the wounded man were from the MAC’s Motorcycle Club.

Van Dyk said the suspected shooter was reportedly affiliated with the Crusaders Motorcycle Club.

These two groups have clashed before.

Van Dyk said an argument broke out, which led to the suspect drawing a firearm and shooting a man. It was believed the bullet wounded the right-hand side of his chest, then fatally struck the second man.

“The suspect reportedly left the scene on a motorcycle after the shooting,” Van Dyk said.

He was subsequently arrested and is expected in the Hatfield Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

Little Britain Pub, outside where the shooting happened, posted on Facebook: “Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the man who lost his life. Our thoughts are also with the injured man and his loved ones, and we sincerely hope for his full recovery.

“Little Britain Pub has always been bike-friendly, and we will remain so [...]

“However, we regret to announce that, with immediate effect, motorcycle club patches will no longer be permitted on our premises. This policy applies equally to all clubs and does not assign blame to any club or the wider biking community.”

The shooting adds to concerns about ongoing friction between some local biking groups.

Beyond that, there are suspicions that international outlaw motorcycle gangs with bases in other countries may be involved in trafficking drugs that Mexican cartels are producing in South Africa.

Drug factories

Local police recently uncovered a few Mandrax production facilities.

Daily Maverick has reported that over two years, there have also been at least five mass illicit drug manufacturing factory crackdowns, mainly involving methamphetamine (also known as meth or tik), in South Africa.

Suspects, including those from Mexico, have been arrested.

Police are reportedly investigating whether there are links between 11 drug production facilities which have been uncovered so far.

The arrests of Mexican suspects add to evidence suggesting that cartels from that country are increasingly active in South Africa and across this continent.

Infighting, meanwhile, is rocking Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Daily Maverick understands that there are worries in local law enforcement circles about how criminal networks here could become embroiled in “imported” violence.

Africa expansion

Several matters suggest Mexican cartels are increasingly active in Africa (this may be because of harsher crackdowns elsewhere). In April 2026, authorities in Mozambique, which borders South Africa, announced that they had confiscated masses of drug-producing chemicals and arrested three suspects, two from Mexico with alleged Sinaloa cartel links. Daily Maverick understands that sources with ties to policing are concerned about drug producers moving into South Africa from Mozambique. The month after the Mozambique crackdown, in May 2026, authorities in Nigeria announced that it had dismantled “a highly sophisticated, multimillion-dollar Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine production syndicate.”

There are also concerns that international outlaw motorcycle clubs are moving into South Africa. Already South Africa is home to numerous biker groups and clubs, many of which operate within registered or mainstream structures and do not have outlaw (also known as one-percenter) status.

Given the weekend shooting, some within the local biking community are clearly on edge.

Bandidos in Joburg?

The AFP recently published a report on massive illicit drug factories in South Africa involving Mexican suspects.

It said that investigators believed one of the facilities was part of “a network established by the Sinaloa cartel to supply Australia and New Zealand, the most lucrative meth markets on the planet”.

The AFP report added: “Police in both Australia and New Zealand have previously established that local chapters of the Comancheros biker gangs were sourcing drugs from the Sinaloa cartel.”

Daily Maverick has reported on evidence suggesting that Comancheros, with bases in Australia, operated via South Africa and that a former head was among those who had planned to source 600kg of methamphetamine from here.

Another outlaw motorcycle club tied to countries including Australia is Bandidos.

It seems to have originated in the US decades ago, and ex-Comancheros members established the Australian branch.

Last week, Daily Maverick established that a website under the international Bandidos name included a post saying, in part: “On behalf of the Bandidos MC Central Region Australia we’d like to welcome Bandidos MC Johannesburg Probationary chapter South Africa to the Red and Gold nation”. (These are the colours associated with the group.)

While that post is unverified and does not indicate criminality or links to illicit drugs, it suggests Bandidos may be setting up shop in South Africa – or that a Bandidos chapter is being considered here.

Daily Maverick has seen other material suggesting Bandidos now have a presence in Johannesburg.

This has caused concern in related quarters, especially because years ago, Timothy Lotter, the head of the South African chapter of the Satudarah motorcycle club, outlawed in the Netherlands, was murdered in Cape Town.

Satudarah in SA – and killings

On 5 January 2020, Timothy Lotter was fatally shot while driving in the Cape Town suburb of Goodwood.  He headed a security company and the Satudarah Motorcycle Club in South Africa. In 2018, the club was banned in the Netherlands, where it originated, over crime including extortion. Lotter was believed to have been connected to top-tier drug dealers, with contacts in countries including Colombia. Months after Lotter was killed, in September 2020, a gunman on a motorbike murdered his associate Stephan Venter outside a restaurant about 50km from Cape Town’s city centre. Venter, according to sources, may have been involved in ensuring the safe passage of drug shipments from other countries into South Africa.

Law enforcers in other locations deal with outlaw motorcycle gangs in various ways.

For example, the Netherlands banned Bandidos in 2017, citing its “permanent culture of lawlessness,” while elsewhere, different forms of legislation are used on motorcycle club members who are not breaking the law simply by being part of the clubs.

Last week, Daily Maverick asked the Australian Federal Police if its officers were investigating whether outlaw motorcycle gangs based there were active in South Africa.

Australia’s federal police offered, “no comment.”

In early October and again last week, Daily Maverick asked the local Hawks whether international outlaw motorcycle gangs such as Bandidos were flagged in its investigations.

No response was received by the time of publication.

It is therefore unclear if authorities are worried about the possibility of Bandidos in South Africa.

Arrested in Australia, indicted in America

Bandidos members have caused problems elsewhere.

Police in Australia last month announced that more suspects were arrested as part of an investigation that began in early 2025 into a group allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

The investigation revealed that the emerging Canberra group of the Bandidos was known as the “King City” chapter.

“Police will allege the group has been involved in the trafficking of more than 70kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value exceeding $10-million,” a statement said.

Last year, the US acted against Bandidos members there who were allegedly involved in crimes ranging from murder and arson to witness intimidation.

At the time, Antoinette Bacon, a supervisory officer with the US Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said: “[This] is an important step in eliminating the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

“The Bandidos declare war on rivals – and they wage that war on our streets.”

An indictment in that case alleged, “that the Bandidos are a self-identified ‘outlaw’ motorcycle organization with a membership of approximately 1,500 to 2,000 in the United States and an additional 1,000 to 1,500 members internationally, including in Mexico”.

Back to the illicit drug crackdowns in South Africa that have suspected Mexican and Sinaloa cartel links.

Converging crackdowns

Recently, two pivotal developments happened on the same day on different continents.

Just more than a week ago in South Africa, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia referred to the growing problem of mega drug factories set up by Mexican cartels in this country.

He said there was a plan to ensure better collaboration among law enforcers, and, “Ultimately, we will be pursuing not only the small-time dealers, but those that enable and lead these organised criminal networks.

“Success will be measured in the arrests and convictions of those at the top along with the seizure of their ill-gotten wealth and assets”.

Cachalia also acknowledged what has long been obvious: the “increasingly transnational nature” of organised criminal networks.

On the day he made that statement, Wednesday, 29 September 2026, the US sanctioned several alleged Sinaloa Cartel members.

Details in the US sanctions announcement showed how incidents in South Africa and America happened around the same time.

The largest super lab uncovered in this country so far appeared to be a methamphetamine production facility that police cracked down on at a Limpopo farm in July 2024.

Three men from Mexico, along with two local suspects, were detained.

It was suspected that the operation, worth about R2-billion, was directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

Barely a week after that crackdown in 2024, one of the cartel’s founders, Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as El Mayo, was arrested in the US.

‘Costly civil war’

When recently announcing the sanctions against other Sinaloa cartel suspects (on the same day Cachalia spoke about targeting top traffickers), the US Department of the Treasury said that Garcia’s 2024 arrest had “set off an internal power struggle within the cartel”.

This was between its two key factions, Los Mayos and Los Chapitos.

“Violence between the two factions erupted throughout Sinaloa and other Mexican states as the groups battled for territory and brokered alliances to win influence,” the US Treasury Department statement said.

“Presently, Los Mayos and Los Chapitos remain deadlocked in a costly civil war that has required both factions to reconstitute and rely on new leadership to take charge.”

This means that the largest super lab in South Africa with suspected Sinaloa cartel links was uncovered roughly six days before Garcia’s US arrest that sparked cartel infighting in Mexico.

It also means that if Sinaloa cartel members are in this country, even if low down on the gang hierarchy, as sources have said, they could represent battling factions and local criminal groups could get involved in related fighting.

These are roughly the concerns around international outlaw motorcycle gangs – that if new ones start up in South Africa, they could spark clashes among local biker groups or inflame already tense relations. DM