In previous articles, Mexico News Report has reported Mexican cartel activity in Africa, in Nigeria, Mozambique and South Africa. See Mexican Drug Cartels in Africa and Mexicans and Meth in Nigeria.
In less than a year, eleven Mexicans have arrested in South Africa, working with three different meth labs.
From South Africa’s eNCA: “South African police have uncovered a major crystal meth laboratory on the border with Zimbabwe and rounded up several foreign nationals, including two Mexicans, they said on Friday [August 21]. The operation follows a series of drug busts involving Mexican nationals over the past months that have led authorities to suspect Latin American cartels are expanding into Africa. Security forces raided the laboratory late Thursday [August 20] and seized drugs and equipment worth around R600 million, they said in a statement.”
“They arrested two Mexican nationals, two Zimbabweans and a Malawian. The operation was hidden on a farm near the northern border town of Musina in Limpopo Province and ‘exposed an alleged sophisticated, industrial-scale operation’, the statement said.”
“Limpopo’s top cop, Lieutenant-General Jan Scheepers, said he expected ‘more arrests’ and believed the operation was linked to organised crime syndicates. ‘So far, what we could determine is they are sending the drugs which are manufactured here throughout our country and also to our neighbouring countries,’ he said.”
“Asked about any link to Latin American cartels, a police spokesman told AFP: ‘Nationality alone does not establish a cartel link.’ “
No, but when you find Mexicans in Africa involved with a drug lab that might be a pretty big clue!
And these aren’t the first Mexicans arrested in South Africa for similar reasons.
“Police in May uncovered a multi-million-dollar methamphetamine laboratory and arrested 11 suspects, including four Mexicans, on a remote farm northwest of Johannesburg. Authorities estimated the value of the drugs produced there at around 250 million rand.”
And before that,
“In September, police raided another clandestine lab in a rural area about 250 kilometres (155 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, seizing methamphetamine worth 350 million rand and arresting five Mexican nationals.”
South Africa is a big market for meth, as the article explains. Just as in the United States, the drug market operates on supply and demand.
“South Africa is a major consumer of meth and the market for the drug is growing in neighbouring countries and elsewhere in the region, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. The Geneva-based agency said in a July 2025 report that drugs labs in South Africa and Mozambique ‘are emblematic of the expansion of Latin American cartels into Africa and cooperation with local criminal groups’ ”.
So in less than a year, eleven Mexicans have been arrested working with meth labs in South Africa. Looks like a pattern.
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