Mexican Cartels Target Australia with Their African Meth
Investigators say the cartel is building industrial-scale labs to supply Australia and New Zealand, where meth prices are 65 to 100 times higher than in the United States.
- Investigators identified the Sinaloa cartel as establishing industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratories across South Africa to supply the lucrative Australian market, with at least seven facilities discovered across southern Africa in recent years.
- High-Level Mexican chemists frequently enter South Africa to establish labs, often approaching struggling farmers to host operations and utilizing the P2P manufacturing method, previously unknown in the region, to produce the drug.
- The Swartruggens laboratory, busted in May, produced five tonnes of methamphetamine monthly, worth around $1 billion wholesale in Australia, while authorities also uncovered an industrial-scale lab in Klipvoor, 175 kilometers north of Johannesburg earlier this month.
- Police arrested 13 individuals at Swartruggens, including five Mexican chemists; Brigadier Devon Naicker of the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau is investigating whether a specific Australian meth haul routed through Durban originated from the facility.
- Cartel activity has surged across Africa, with labs also dismantled in Nigeria and Mozambique as the group faces increased pressure in the United States and Latin American regions, mirroring trafficking patterns seen in other jurisdictions.
13 Articles
13 Articles
'Tourists' or cartel chemists? Mexican cartel accused of turning SA game farms into meth labs
The Mexican ‘tourists’ told immigration officers in Johannesburg they had come to see the Big Five’ of South Africa’s game parks – the elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards and buffaloes that draw millions every year. But police believe they were really chemists sent by the Mexican Sinaloa crime cartel to set up an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory on a game farm near the country town of... Read more →
Radio France Internationale
Mexican cartels target Australia with their African meth
But police believe they were really chemists sent by the Mexican Sinaloa crime cartel to set up an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory on a game farm near the country town of Swartruggens, one of at least seven discovered across southern Africa in the last two years, AFP has learned. Investigators say the crystal meth lab is one of a network established by the Sinaloa cartel to supply Australia and New Zealand, the most lucrative meth ma…
They were in fact chemists sent by the formidable Mexican cartel in Sinaloa to set up an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory in the country, according to the police. One of the seven discovered during the raids that have increased over the past two years in South Africa, according to the investigators. South African police suspect that this important facility near Swartruggens, 175 km north of Johannesburg, is part of a network that the …
Police investigations in South Africa and Nigeria have identified a growing presence of suspected members of Mexican cartels linked to the international production and distribution of methamphetamine. According to an AFP investigation, South African authorities suspect that members of the Sinaloa Cartel were involved in an industrial-scale laboratory...
Authorities are investigating a network linked to the Sinaloa cartel that installs methamphetamine laboratories in Africa to supply Australia and New Zealand.
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