A R20m drug consignment seized by the police from a truck near Cape Town includes bricks of cocaine with packaging bearing the Tesla logo, which is similar to cocaine packaging previously seen in Mexico. (Photo: SAPS) 
A week after Mpumalanga police discovered a multimillion-rand illicit drug-making facility and arrested suspects that included five Mexicans, cocaine with packaging similar to that seen in Mexico was seized in the Western Cape.
These incidents add to evidence suggesting that Mexican cartels are active in South Africa.
It has also become clear that a network of illicit drug production facilities in South Africa, including one that was discovered underground, has ties to individuals from countries including Mozambique.
Daily Maverick has established that activities tied to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel have been detected in Mozambique, where other trafficking gangs, including from Brazil, operate.
Transnational networks
In November 2024, Daily Maverick reported on drug crackdowns that pointed to Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels being active in South Africa.
Around that time, a R100-million drug production facility was discovered in Tshwane and a Mexican suspect was arrested.
In July 2024, three individuals from Mexico were among those arrested in Limpopo for allegedly running a large crystal methamphetamine production facility.
The Hawks head at the time, Godfrey Lebeya, said the Mexican suspects “appear to be members” of the Sinaloa Cartel.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/3-2-1.jpg "Five suspects were arrested on 19 July 2024 in an intelligence-driven operation by members of the Limpopo Serious Organised Crime Investigation (SOCI) team, assisted by the Limpopo Tactical Response Team, at a farm in Groblersdal, where a multimillion-rand clandestine drug-making laboratory was discovered. (Photo: SAPS)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1-1-1.jpg "Arrested suspects at the Groblersdal farm on 19 July 2024. (Photo: SAPS)")
Other mass drug production facilities have since been discovered in South Africa.
This situation is concerning and could relate to allegations made at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that a drug cartel known as the Big Five — headquartered in Gauteng and with international conduits — had infiltrated politics, law enforcement and private security in South Africa.
Read more: Big Five cartel’s dark web of political ties and criminal operations unveiled by Dumisani Khumalo
Trucks and trafficking
In terms of potential ties to Mexican cartels, there is new evidence stemming from different provinces in South Africa pointing to this.
A recent interception fits in here.
It happened on the evening of Tuesday, 30 September in the Western Cape.
Police received information about a truck possibly transporting drugs from Johannesburg to Cape Town. According to sources, trucks are often used to transport large consignments of drugs between provinces in South Africa.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2-1-1.jpg "Four suspects, including the farm owner and two Mexican nationals, were arrested on 19 July 2024 in an intelligence-driven operation by members of the Limpopo Serious Organised Crime Investigation (SOCI) team assisted by the Limpopo Tactical Response Team at a farm in Groblersdal, where a multimillion-dollar clandestine laboratory was discovered. (Photo: SAPS)")
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk said officers stopped the truck in the vicinity of the Huguenot Tunnel outside Cape Town.
“The members … searched the vehicle and seized 55.8kg tik [crystal methamphetamine] to the street value of R16,367,814 and 30.5kg cocaine to the street value of R3,863,435,” said Van Wyk.
A suspect was arrested.
The Western Cape police provided photographs of the seized drugs, some of which were bricks of cocaine with packaging that bore the word “Tesla”.
Daily Maverick recently reported that cocaine intercepted a few years ago in Durban had logos on it, including the Jaguar brand, and that the image of a jaguar had been used on cocaine packages by a now-jailed Sinaloa Cartel member to show his ownership.
As for the Tesla logo, it has been seen on cocaine packages intercepted elsewhere, including in Mexico.
A fin de ponerlos a disposición de la autoridad judicial, trasladamos al Reclusorio Norte, en coordinación con @SSC_CDMX, a los cuatro detenidos luego del aseguramiento de más de una tonelada 600 kg de cocaína que era transportada en 2 tractocamiones pic.twitter.com/9xOSWhzeQT
— Fiscalía CDMX (@FiscaliaCDMX) July 28, 2022
An example involves a crackdown there in July 2022, when around 600kg of cocaine was discovered in two tractor-trailers in Mexico City.
Four suspects, allegedly involved in a criminal group that operated in areas including Sinaloa, were arrested.
Mexican media reported that the cocaine was from Colombia, was destined for the US and had probably been trafficked via the Sinaloa Cartel.
Photographs of that interception showed cocaine bricks with the Prada logo and the Tesla logo, similar to the packaging of the cocaine that was part of the R20-million drug consignment recently intercepted in the Western Cape.
Multimillion-rand ‘secret laboratory’
About a week before that Western Cape bust, on 22 September, Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi said a “multimillion[-rand] clandestine laboratory” was discovered outside Volksrust in Mpumalanga after the police were tipped off about an “unpleasant smell in the area”.
They discovered crystal methamphetamine as well as chemicals and machinery believed to be used to manufacture drugs.
Six suspects were present at the facility and arrested. Five were from Mexico and one was from South Africa.
They are: Isabel Antonio Quintero Corrales (36), Hector Manuel Valenzuela Ontiveros (36), Luis Alberto Osorio Viscarra (31), Jose Omar Molina Jimenez (36), Nicanor Molina Jimenez (48), and Bafana Samson Magubane (61), who is from South Africa.
Read more: Panama drug bust provides more clues tying South Africa to Mexican and Colombian cartels
“The five Mexicans were in possession of their travelling documents, which are questionable. The Department of Home Affairs will be brought on board for further investigation,” said Nkosi.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1-2.jpg "Clandestine laboratories in Mahonie Street and Rooikopen farm in Standerton, as well as the warehouse with chemicals believed to be used in the manufacturing of drugs, were found. An underground laboratory was recovered in Rooikopen farm on 14 May 2025. (Photo: SAPS)")
“Magubane was also found in possession of three 9mm live rounds. He could not produce a firearm licence.”
The court case against this group is expected to resume on 10 October.
Underground drugs
Nkosi said that a few months before this, “similar activities were discovered in Standerton, less than 100km from Volksrust, where another clandestine laboratory with equipment, chemicals and final products to the value of more than R50-million was recovered”.
In May this year, the police announced that an underground drug manufacturing facility had been found at Rooikoppen in Standerton. An entrance to it was hidden under a shipping container.
“Machinery believed to be used in the illegal manufacturing of drugs, drums, and plastic containers filled with substances were recovered,” said Nkosi.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/0-1.jpg "The underground drug-making facility at Rooikoppen in Standerton. (Photo: SAPS)")
In April this year, another illegal drug-making facility was found in Standerton.
Mozambican connection
Four suspects from Mozambique were arrested.
That operation led police to a farm that officers discovered was housing “a clandestine drug laboratory”.
A Mozambican couple, the parents of the suspects previously arrested, were taken into custody.
Various drug trafficking groups operate in and via Mozambique.
This includes traffickers from Brazil, from where cocaine is also transported into South Africa.
Earlier this year, authorities in Brazil announced that it was suspected that the Sinaloa Cartel was mailing drug consignments to Brazil.
Daily Maverick has established that Sinaloa Cartel activity has also been detected in Mozambique.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/CocaineInfo.jpg "Several drug interceptions in South Africa have ties to local suspects, as well as suspects from Mexico and Mozambique. There were previous suspicions that some suspects arrested in this country were linked to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, which is active in various other countries, including Mozambique. (Infographic \ Bogosi Monnakgotla)")
Read more: From South Africa to Sinaloa: Jackie Selebi and the ‘parallel’ US drug trial of Mexico’s ex-cop boss
A US government document, the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, from March 2025, said there was an ongoing investigation by Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service “into Sinaloa Cartel activity” there.
The investigation, the report said, “led to the discovery of two methamphetamine labs in remote areas near the town of Moamba, near the border with South Africa”. (These appear to be similar to the illicit drug production facilities discovered in this country.)
The report added that Mozambican investigators had “seized 75kg of finished methamphetamine and are searching for Mexican nationals they believe were working at the labs”. DM