Rohypnol, otherwise known as the date rape drug, has been discovered hidden in dried fish at OR Tambo International Airport after it landed there from Nigeria.

The interception on Monday, 20 November 2023, is the latest in a series of drug crackdowns that have played out over the past few months, and which have links to South Africa and Nigeria.

Daily Maverick has reported extensively on the activities of gangs trafficking drugs via this country.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Suspected drug traffickers arrests at OR Tambo airport echo prior SA-Australia ‘cocaine plane’ smuggling scheme

Other states that are pivotal in this arena include Brazil and Australia.

Nigeria fits into these trafficking networks.

Date rape drug in dried fish

South Africa’s Border Management Authority announced on Monday that “8.1kg of Rohypnol was detected concealed in a consignment of dried fish.”

[BREAKING NEWS!!! ]

BMA DISCOVERS MORE THAN 8KG OF THE “DATE RAPE” DRUG CONCEALED IN A FISH CONSIGNMENT AT ORTIA

The Commissioner of the @TheBMA_SA , Dr Michael @masiapata has commended the dynamic operation of the BMA environmental health officials who made a major drug… pic.twitter.com/XCBijAFmnC

— The Border Management Authority SA (@TheBMA_SA) November 20, 2023

More commonly known as the “date rape drug” in South Africa, it is classified as Schedule 6, so a prescription is needed for it.

The interception happened at a cargo terminal OR Tambo International Airport (where, in a separate bust, five workers were arrested last week in connection with cocaine smuggling via Australia).

Concealed in wheat and pepper

While it was not clear who was behind the Rohypnol consignment, the crackdown comes after a separate domino effect drug trafficking takedown, with direct links to South Africa, that played out in Nigeria over the past few months.

In the first phase of the crackdown, in August, operatives with Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) intercepted consignments of ephedrine (used to make methamphetamine), a strain of cannabis, and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) that was being smuggled to South Africa and Kenya.

Traffickers were concealing the substances in packaging that usually contained a wheat product, as well as in between dry pepper.

An NDLEA statement said that subsequent investigations into who was behind the smuggling led to some arrests.

Mansions raided

Some suspects’ “mansions [were] raided, and their luxury vehicles seized.”

On 25 August 2023, a suspect, Suleiman Babatunde Oba, was detained while trying to board a flight to South Africa — he was allegedly caught with two boxes containing ephedrine.

The NDLEA accused Oba of being a “member of a cartel distributing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ephedrine between Nigeria, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Europe.”

Oba was married to a South African woman and according to the NDLEA, had a South African passport and had lived in this country for two decades.

“In his statement… [he] identified [another man,] Hakeem Babatunde Salami who equally lives in Lagos and South Africa as the head of the drug ring,” the NDLEA statement said. 

Fled to SA

Three days after Oba’s arrest, NDLEA members went to Salami’s home in Lagos and discovered he had allegedly fled the country on the day Oba was detained.

A Toyota Venza, Mercedes-Benz SUV, phones and documents were confiscated as part of investigations.

About a month-and-a-half later, the man Oba had alleged was “the head of the drug ring” — Salami — was detained.

On 10 October, Salami was taken into custody at Nigeria’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

The NDLEA said the arrest happened “after weeks of intelligence-led operations across the country and outside Nigeria.” 

It accused Salami of heading a transnational organised crime gang.

Gold, drugs and Pretoria business

Salami had allegedly fled Nigeria for South Africa on the day of Oba’s arrest.

“Hakeem Babatunde Salami was however smoked out of hiding through partnership with South African authorities and other intelligence and investigative mechanisms,” the NDLEA said in a press release about his arrest.

“In [a] statement, he claimed he was into the importation of building materials from China to Nigeria and used to sell gold in South Africa before delving into the illicit drug trade about two years ago.”

Other suspects linked to the cartel, including a man named Godwin Edet Mathew, were also detained.

Daily Maverick established that someone with the same full name as Salami’s was the director of a company, Alao Venturs, that was based in a building in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

On 23 October 2023 Daily Maverick asked the South African Police Service about its role in Salami’s arrest in Nigeria, but no response was received.

In July the NDLEA announced it HAD met with a representative of South Africa’s Hawks “to forge stronger operational ties that will herald tough times for drug syndicates operating between the two countries”.

Murder conspiracy plot

Meanwhile, in recent arrests in South Africa, three alleged drug dealers from Nigeria — Paul Ogor Ndudiokwe, Obinna Igbokwe, and Kenneth Ozor Onurarah — were detained in the Northern Cape city of Upington on 15 October.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority, they were accused of plotting to murder certain police officers and rape one’s wife in front of him.

This was allegedly in retaliation for arrests the officers were carrying out “regularly for possession or dealing of drugs, [and] were hurting their business, and causing them to lose money.”

The trio were released from custody on bail and are expected back in an Upington court in December. DM