Brazil’s cocaine traffickers still targeting Durban harbour despite Madlanga focus

Brazilian authorities last week intercepted 98.5kg of cocaine that was bound for South Africa. The drug was hidden within sealed metal cylinders in a shipping container at a private terminal in the Port of Paranaguá.

“The container was destined for the Port of Durban, in South Africa, the largest and busiest cargo and container terminal on the continent,” said Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service.

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It was the second recent seizure of cocaine at Paranaguá. On 27 August, Brazilian police discovered a 33kg consignment hidden in a shipping container at the port – a shipment Federal Police confirmed was bound for Africa, though they did not specify the exact destination.

The Madlanga Commission – currently investigating allegations that a drug cartel, the Big Five, has infiltrated South Africa's criminal justice system, political realm and private sector – has repeatedly heard evidence linking Durban to high-level cocaine trafficking.

The commission heard that the Big Five brought in drugs from South America, often via Durban, and the consignments were then transported to Gauteng, from where they were distributed locally and internationally.

Cops and cocaine

Businessman Tumelo Nku testified at the commission about a R286-million cocaine consignment that arrived at Durban harbour from Brazil and was later intercepted in Aeroton, Johannesburg, on 9 July 2021.

The cocaine interception, he said, had been orchestrated on behalf of a drug trafficker known as “Eby” or “Iby” to sabotage a rival dealer. Nku testified that he was introduced to Eby by a distant relative – Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association leader and former deputy defence minister Kebby Maphatsoe, who died in 2021.

Nku was one of four people – including two police officers – arrested at the interception scene in a case that was subsequently withdrawn. The matter is still under investigation.

Testimony at the commission has shifted focus to operations at Durban harbour, but this has clearly not deterred traffickers. Meanwhile, fresh intelligence from Brazil sheds further light on the key figures behind the supply lines targeting South Africa.

Mafia and money laundering

Late last month, Willian Barile Agati, accused of being a high-ranking member of Brazil’s notorious Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) gang, failed to secure his release from state custody, where he remains on charges linked to drug trafficking.

Brazilian media recently reported that Agati has been detained since January 2025.

A Superior Court judgment from last year detailed the accusations against him and sheds further light on how the PCC – which appears to have links to South Africa – operates.

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The judgment revealed that Agati is under investigation for international drug trafficking and laundering millions of dollars, allegedly utilising private aircraft and sea vessels to move illicit shipments. Authorities suspect he served as a crucial bridge between the PCC and Italy’s powerful ’Ndrangheta mafia group, who have joined forces to manage global supply routes.

‘Reach across Africa’

The judgment further accused Agati of laundering money for jailed PCC kingpin Gilberto Aparecido Dos Santos, alias “Fuminho.” The court noted that “Fuminho was a high-ranking PCC associate with significant involvement in drug trafficking across the African continent.”

Daily Maverick reported in 2022 that Dos Santos had lived in Johannesburg under a false identity.

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According to the Hawks, he had fled South Africa when he realised he was under investigation.

South African police sources said Dos Santos and the PCC operated in African countries, including this one.

Last year’s judgment against Agati now adds weight to that assertion.

United States crackdowns

In July 2026, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned two individuals and three companies allegedly linked to the PCC. It warned that the PCC “is now the largest transnational criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere, and in recent years has expanded its operations globally, with significant presence in countries such as the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Japan”. Ahead of this, in May 2026, the US designated the PCC as a foreign terrorist organisation.

It found that Agati was trying to establish the PCC in Mozambique and to facilitate Aparecido’s stay there.

Dos Santos was arrested in Mozambique in 2020.

Agati then allegedly attempted to secure Dos Santos’s freedom by proposing illicit payments to authorities. Further allegations detail how Agati coordinated the international transport of “large quantities of cocaine” using private aircraft and maritime routes – specifically by stashing the drug inside shipping containers at the Port of Paranaguá, where last week’s South Africa-bound consignment was intercepted.

Thefts and killings

The judgment, also alleged that Agati and a fellow trafficking accused, Edmilson de Meneses, who died when a bus hit him in 2024, were behind four killings linked to the theft of two large cocaine shipments destined for Spain.

A cocaine theft that happened in South Africa may also link to killings here, highlighting more parallels between Brazil and South Africa’s narco-underworld.

In 2021, a R200-million cocaine consignment was intercepted at a container depot in Isipingo, about 20km from Durban. The Madlanga Commission heard that the consignment was stored at the poorly secured Hawks building in Port Shepstone, from where it was subsequently stolen.

Last month, a suspect, Lucas Legabe (49) was arrested in connection with the stolen cocaine, and he appeared in the Port Shepstone Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 8 September, to apply for bail.

He reportedly denied the charges he is facing and claimed he had been tortured to implicate police officers in the case.

His bail application is set to continue on Wednesday.

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has alleged that the stolen cocaine eventually resurfaced in Johannesburg, where it was looted a second time. He said this second theft triggered a wave of retaliatory murders in Johannesburg –including, sources suggest, the November 2022 fatal shooting of Oupa John Sefoka, known as DJ Sumbody. The stolen shipment had originally entered South Africa from Brazil. DM