PRIME PROPERTY: Built-in gangs, ample space, cop service needs repair — why drug traffickers target SA

If a narco estate agent assessed South Africa, they’d know it is in a prime position, with a coastline that enables consignments to be shipped in and out, plus vast inland plots with drier weather where drug-making factories can be set up.

The country also has established gangs that stretch across regions and which local and international traffickers can use to distribute or move their illicit wares.

There is much more that makes South Africa alluring to drug honchos, but there are also drawbacks.

Mixed-use SA, Mandrax and meth

South Africa is a drug transit, consumption and manufacturing destination, meaning illicit drugs are pushed through it, are used (and abused) in it, and are made here.

Reiterating the last point, and a clear red flag for traffickers, is that police have recently cracked down on several massive illicit drug production factories.

Barely a week ago, police uncovered a R100-million Mandrax facility on a farm in Hekpoort, near Krugersdorp in Gauteng.

Five local suspects were arrested and face charges relating to illicit drug manufacturing and dealing.

They are Trent Coetzer, 36, Nakedi Makwesi, 44, Evan-Lee Mohapi, 25, Donell Coetzer, 28, and Lyle Johnson, 21.

All five appeared in the Krugersdorp Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 12 October 2026, and are expected back in the dock again on 21 October.

Days before they were detained, another multimillion-rand Mandrax-making factory was uncovered in the Hartbeespoort Dam area in North West.

South Africa has a deep history involving trafficking and manufacturing Mandrax, so these recently discovered facilities are nothing too new in the greater scheme of things.

Then there’s methamphetamine, also known as tik.

Over roughly two years up until August 2026, police cracked down on at least five illicit drug factories, mainly involving tik, with suspects from Mexico arrested.

This points to an emerging problem of Mexican cartel activity in South Africa.

Mass cocaine consignments, meanwhile, also enter and leave the country, often via sea.

The continuous Brazil conduit

Cocaine sent from Brazil often ends up in South Africa. Daily Maverick has reported that authorities have been aware of a smuggling channel between Brazil’s Port of Santos and South Africa’s Port of Durban since the early 2000s. Cocaine is also flown between the two countries. In one of the latest related incidents, between 8 and 9 October 2026, a 15kg cocaine consignment destined for South Africa was intercepted at Brazil’s Guarulhos International Airport.

Daily Maverick has reported that traffickers favour Durban harbour in KwaZulu-Natal, but have shifted to smaller ports, including Hout Bay in the Western Cape (where Mandrax worth R10-million was intercepted last week).

South Africa clearly has the space for drug manufacturing and the infrastructure – roads and ports – to smuggle consignments.

It also has extra finishes and features.

Custom gang fittings

Various gangs (the Fast Guns, the 28s, the Junky Funky Kids, to name a few) operate in the country.

Through talking to various sources in law enforcement circles over several months, Daily Maverick has established that local and international traffickers who do not have their own conduits here can hire or co-opt gang networks already in place to move or distribute their drugs.

These kinds of alliances stretch from land to sea and air.

Take the case of alleged Terrible Josters gang boss Peter Jaggers and his associate William Petersen of the Western Cape.

It was suspected that a few years ago, transnational traffickers got in touch with Jaggers, who agreed to have members of his gang (also involved in perlemoen poaching and therefore familiar with the sea) retrieve a mass cocaine consignment along the Western Cape coast.

Daily Maverick understands that this – gangsters tasked to fetch cocaine consignments (with tracking devices) despatched from ships at sea – is not uncommon.

It’s just difficult to police.

In the Jaggers-Petersen case, the cocaine went missing and they were reportedly kidnapped in Gauteng in July 2024 because they could not account for it.

Their bound bodies were later found in a river in the Free State.

Abundant space, conducive climate

Illicit importing aside, traffickers who decide to mass manufacture drugs obviously need the space to do this.

In estate agent lingo, they probably look for income-generating properties with ample live-work space. They need this to set up makeshift drug factories.

Police call facilities that generate masses of drugs “super labs”.

These have been discussed at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating whether a cartel known as the Big Five has infiltrated South Africa’s criminal justice system, politics and private sector.

Major General Hendrik Flynn, who heads the Serious Organised Crime Investigation component of the Hawks, testified about the facilities at the commission a few months ago.

“Super labs are large-scale drug manufacturing operations using specialised equipment and producing drugs in significant quantities,” he said.

These were usually found on remote farms and smallholdings.

Making methamphetamine

In May 2026, Major General Hendrik Flynn, who heads the Serious Organised Crime Investigation component of the Hawks, explained some of what went into producing methamphetamine in South Africa.

He said ephedrine, a controlled substance that could not be purchased over the counter, was the key ingredient. A plant-based version came from a tree in Afghanistan, while the chemical version was manufactured. Equipment needed to produce masses of methamphetamine included industrial extraction fans.

In drug manufacturing, these were to keep fumes away from methamphetamine “cooks”. Chemicals were mixed, according to drug recipes, in reaction vessels under which gas burners were placed.

Flynn explained that the reaction vessels were imported, probably under the guise of other equipment, and used for illegal purposes in South Africa. He was not aware of any local manufacturers who made these vessels.

“These locations reduce the likelihood that activities [involving] unusual odours associated with manufacturing large volumes of drugs, noise or wastewater disposal will be observed,” Flynn explained to the commission.

Super labs had been flagged in provinces including Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga, and Flynn believed these regions had drier climates better suited for drug manufacturing than coastal regions.

He added that it was well known in illicit drug-making circles “that Mexican nationals tend to be the best at manufacturing synthetic drugs or at being ‘cooks.’ ”

This could explain the several Mexican suspects arrested when drug factories have been uncovered in South Africa.

Fixer-upper police

Then there’s the key issue that undoubtedly contributes to how traffickers see this country – the condition of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and related state law enforcement structures.

These clearly need some TLC.

At the same time, they have huge potential.

The drug factory crackdowns point to that.

But the SAPS and law enforcement are going through unprecedented turmoil, sparked in July last year when KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged a drug cartel had infiltrated the state.

This is what the Madlanga Commission is investigating.

Stolen cocaine

Police intercepted a R200-million cocaine consignment at an Isipingo depot in KwaZulu-Natal in June 2021. Several months later, in November that year, the consignment was stolen from a strong room inside the unsecured Hawks building in Port Shepstone, where it was being stored. The theft is suspected to be an inside job.

During the commission’s hearings, several senior police officers have testified about their suspicions that certain colleagues have, by intent or negligence, impeded big cocaine investigations.

Tumelo Nku, a businessman, also told the Madlanga Commission that a R286-million cocaine consignment intercepted in Aeroton, Johannesburg, in July 2021 had been orchestrated on behalf of a drug trafficker known as “Eby” or “Iby.”

According to Nku, the interception was carried out to put a rival trafficker of Eby’s on the back foot, an allegation that raises questions about what drives different drug busts.

Potential dealbreaker

All this points to the frenetic state of South Africa’s policing.

Traffickers may see the turbulence as an upside because it could mean police officers are distracted or that there’s room for collusion, to get cops on their side.

Corrupt characters present as premium features in dodgy circles.

The SAPS, meanwhile, is now being put through what officials call a “reset” in an attempt to revitalise the service.

Refurbished policing means upgraded investigations.

Last week, speaking in Parliament, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia also emphasised that local police would work closely with counterparts in other countries to tackle criminality.

This means cross-border collaboration may make this country a less appealing neighbourhood for crooks.

All in all, while South Africa is conveniently located, has decent flow in terms of transport and gang conduits, and seems to have what traffickers view as ready move-in spots where super labs can be established, it is also displaying some signs that it’s not simply an open house for criminality.

If police keep cracking down and dismantling drug factories, this could contribute to dealbreakers that deter traffickers.

It could shrink South Africa’s illicit drug market and squeeze out some traffickers. DM