Mexican cartels use African meth labs to target Australia

Mexican cartels are using methamphetamine labs in southern Africa to target Australia and New Zealand, investigators told AFP, with South African police probing whether drugs seized in Australia came from a game-farm laboratory near Swartruggens.

Police believe Mexican chemists linked to the Sinaloa cartel helped set up the Swartruggens lab, one of at least seven found across southern Africa in the past two years. Investigators said the lab 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, said investigators were examining one Australian case because the methamphetamine had gone through Durban port and was packaged in a way linked to the Swartruggens lab. He said the investigation was still continuing.

Australian police confirmed they had identified increased targeting of Australia's illicit drug market by Mexican cartels, but declined to comment on cartel operations in South Africa.

Five of the 13 people arrested when the Swartruggens site was raided in May were Mexican chemists, police said. South African police said 16 Mexicans have been arrested in raids on labs since 2024.

Authorities are also seeing similar patterns in Nigeria. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said three Mexicans accused of cartel links and seven Nigerians were arrested in May at a large rural meth lab in Ogun State, and another Mexican was arrested in June in Oyo State.