South Africa has featured prominently among some of the most significant international organised crime syndicate crackdowns the Australian police carried out in 2023.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been going after drug traffickers and mass money launderers, among other criminals.

And aside from making several arrests, cops there have seized luxury items, cash and property.

Dollars and drugs

In a statement issued on Thursday, 28 December, the AFP said its Eastern Command, which operates across New South Wales, “arrested a series of alleged high-level organised crime targets, seized millions of dollars of suspected criminal proceeds, and stopped tonnes of illegal drugs from reaching our streets in the past 12 months”.

AFP assistant commissioner Stephen Dametto said: “Disrupting organised crime on Australian shores has been the result of dedicated policing, with complex investigations into multifaceted criminal webs culminating in the arrests of priority crime targets.”

Several investigations and crackdowns carried out in 2023 were listed, including the deportation of a suspect “accused of orchestrating one of the largest heroin importations in recent Australian history”, from Turkey to Australia.

An international money laundering operation was targeted as well.

“It is alleged the group enabled multiple transnational serious and organised crime groups to launder criminal proceeds, with the syndicate acting as an unregulated multinational bank which would facilitate transactions for criminal clients,” the AFP said.

Another case involved South Africa.

Cocaine plane

Daily Maverick previously reported on it – in October 2023, 100kg of cocaine, worth an estimated A$40-million (about R489-million) was intercepted in the cargo hold of a passenger plane that flew from South Africa to Sydney.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Australian cops ground suspected traffickers after cocaine worth R500m flown in from SA

The AFP had said that five suspected traffickers were arrested in connection with the haul after a yearlong project codenamed Operation Lucian.

Daily Maverick also reported that among those arrested was Ahmed Haouchar, whose brother Nedal was arrested at Sydney International Airport in November 2023 for drug crimes.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Australian cocaine trafficking-accused ‘De Niro’ with SA links has brotherly ties to R12bn global crime web

Another of Haouchar’s brothers, Bilal, was reportedly arrested in Lebanon in November as he was wanted in Australia in connection with drug offences.

South African airport arrests

Meanwhile, a month after the five arrests in Australia in connection with the cocaine trafficking via plane, five suspects were arrested for that at OR Tambo International Airport on 15 November.

Two of the suspects worked for the Airports Company South Africa, two worked for Menzies Aviation and the fifth was employed at Swissport.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Five suspected traffickers arrested at OR Tambo airport in sting after R500m cocaine flown from SA to Australia

The AFP’s 28 December statement noted the arrests in South Africa.

“Five men accused of loading the 100kg of cocaine at South Africa were arrested by the South African Police Service in November, after AFP evidence was shared via the AFP’s international liaison post at Pretoria, South Africa,” it said.

“The men were charged and will be prosecuted under the South African legal system.”

In a previous AFP statement, the head of the Hawks in Gauteng, Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa, addressed the airport arrests and said local police officers were working with their Australian counterparts.

“The formidable collaboration and partnership between our two law enforcement agencies is generating spectacular and unprecedented operational results in pursuing transnational criminal enterprises involved in trafficking narcotics to Australia and key global markets,” he said.

Outlaw biker links

Daily Maverick has reported extensively on drug trafficking between this country and Australia.

There have been several interceptions that point to that.

Increasing evidence also suggested that a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang, Comanchero, which has roots in Australia, operates via South Africa.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Tik, cocaine and FBI-hacked phones revving relations between SA and Australian outlaw biker gang

In December 2022, Seiana Fakaosilea, originally from Australia and who later based himself in New Zealand, was sentenced to an effective 13 years and two months in jail after pleading guilty to drug charges.

He was the acting national commander of Comanchero.

In 2020, Fakaosilea, along with associates, had planned to traffic 600kg of methamphetamine from South Africa to New Zealand.

Fakaosilea was convicted for the South Africa plan. DM