Mexican cartels use Africa meth labs to target Australia

An AFP investigation says Mexican cartels are using industrial-scale methamphetamine labs in southern Africa to supply Australia and New Zealand, where investigators say prices are far higher than in the United States.

South African narcotics investigators believe Mexican nationals who entered through Johannesburg as tourists were chemists sent by the Sinaloa cartel to set up a lab on a game farm near Swartruggens. Police said the lab, raided in May, was capable of producing five tonnes of methamphetamine a month, worth about $1 billion wholesale in Australia.

Brigadier Devon Naicker, head of the South African Narcotics Enforcement Bureau, told AFP that investigators are examining whether one Australian meth haul came from the Swartruggens lab because it passed through Durban and matched the packaging. Australian police confirmed increased targeting of Australia's illicit drug market by Mexican cartels, but declined to comment on alleged cartel operations in South Africa.

AFP said at least seven labs linked by investigators to the same network have been discovered across southern Africa in the past two years. South African police say 16 Mexicans have been arrested in raids on labs since 2024.

Nigeria's drug agency said five of 28 meth labs busted in Nigeria since 2016 involved Mexicans, including recent raids in Ogun and Oyo states. Officials and experts interviewed by AFP said remote farms, major ports, imported chemicals and corruption have helped the operations grow, while local consumption is also rising as some middlemen are paid partly in drugs.