South Africa police find $37m meth lab, arrest five

South African police said Friday they found a crystal meth laboratory on a farm near Musina, close to the border with Zimbabwe, and arrested five foreign nationals.

Police said security forces raided the site late Thursday and seized drugs and equipment worth about 600 million rand, or $37 million. Those arrested were two Mexican nationals, two Zimbabweans and a Malawian.

The laboratory was hidden on a farm near the northern border town. Police described it as an alleged industrial-scale operation believed to have been set up to make illicit substances for distribution.

The raid follows other South African drug lab busts involving Mexican nationals. Police uncovered a methamphetamine laboratory in May on a remote farm northwest of Johannesburg and arrested 11 suspects, including four Mexicans. In September, police said they seized methamphetamine worth 350 million rand at another rural lab southeast of Johannesburg and arrested five Mexican nationals.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said in a July 2025 report that drug labs in South Africa and Mozambique reflected the expansion of Latin American cartels into Africa and cooperation with local criminal groups.