South Africans entering Nigeria and fuelling global cartel drug trafficking, security briefing hears

A couple of months ago, a South African mother was sentenced in Nigeria to 25 years in jail after smuggling a heroin consignment while using her toddler son to try to slip through security checks.

This is one of several drug cases in which South Africa has been flagged in Nigeria.

These cases have developed as tensions between the two countries surge, with Nigeria’s parliament even banning official visits to South Africa in September 2026 in the wake of violent protests targeting immigrants.

Before that, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu directed that its relevant officials in South Africa “establish a crisis notification unit for Nigerians affected by the recent xenophobic attacks and anti-foreigner sentiments in the country”.

‘Negative perceptions’

Earlier this year, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola was part of a diplomatic mission to Abuja, Nigeria, where he delivered a message from President Cyril Ramaphosa to Tinubu.

A South African government statement on the mission said that concerns were raised about “the involvement of certain foreign nationals, including Nigerian citizens, in organised crime, illicit drug trafficking and financial fraud”.

It said that as of 7 July 2026, “more than 500 Nigerian nationals had been processed through the South African criminal justice system for various offences, highlighting the need for enhanced cross-border security cooperation”.

Mexican cartels expand into Africa

Several incidents suggest Mexican cartels are increasingly active in Africa (this may be because of harsher crackdowns elsewhere). Several drug factories have been uncovered in South Africa and among those arrested are Mexican suspects.

In April 2026, authorities in Mozambique, which borders South Africa, announced that they had confiscated masses of drug-producing chemicals and arrested three suspects, two from Mexico with alleged Sinaloa cartel links.

Daily Maverick understands that sources with ties to policing are concerned about drug producers moving into South Africa from Mozambique. The month after the Mozambique crackdown, in May 2026, authorities in Nigeria announced the dismantling of “a highly sophisticated, multimillion-dollar Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine production syndicate.”

Lamola was quoted in the statement referring to certain incidents that had “regrettably” fuelled negative perceptions around Nigerians living in South Africa.

In terms of drug dealing and trafficking, individuals from Nigeria have previously been arrested in South Africa.

On Saturday, 8 November 2026, police announced that a suspect from Nigeria was arrested in the Eastern Cape and drugs worth R12,400 were seized.

But drug crimes are far broader and involve local as well as international suspects from various countries.

‘South Africans are helping drug cartels’

On Thursday, 5 November, a security briefing that involved various law enforcement agencies was held in Abuja.

During the briefing, clips of which Daily Maverick watched online, the focus turned to accusations that Nigerians were involved in crime in South Africa.

Francis Okogun, assistant director for media and advocacy with Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), said: “Just to correct a notion about what most of our South African counterparts always [tell] us, that Nigerians traffic drugs a lot.

“But if you check most of our press statements in the last few months, the NDLEA has been making a lot of arrests of South Africans who are trying to […] bring drugs into this country.”

Okogun also said that a trend had been picked up – South Africans were trying to move drug consignments into Nigeria and further afield.

“[They’re] coming into Nigeria to help cartels move their drugs from Nigeria into other parts of the world,” he said.

Various drug cases in Nigeria are linked to South Africa.

‘Trafficker mom used toddler as shield’

In September, the NDLEA announced that Jessica Ann Will, 38, was convicted and sentenced in Nigeria to an effective 25 years in jail for importing 5.75kg of heroin.

An NDLEA photograph showed her holding up a whiteboard with her details written on it, suggesting she was from Brakpan in South Africa.

She was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in July this year after she was found to have hidden 14 blocks of heroin in her luggage.

According to the NDLEA statement, while at the airport, she resorted to “using her three-year-old son as a cover to beat security checks and evade thorough screening”. (It was unclear what happened to her son.)

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The statement said she claimed to have travelled from Cambodia and through Doha to Abuja.

“Intelligence leading to her arrest indicates she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation along with her husband/partner,” it said.

Will’s partner, who was apparently arrested in South Africa in the same month as her, in July this year, had been based in Cambodia “where they operate their drug network along the Cambodian-South African axis”.

R20,000 promise and US link

The month after Will was detained, on 7 October 2026, a woman identified as Qhina Beauty, of South Africa, was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

A statement from the NDLEA alleged that she was found with a 36.65kg cocaine consignment in a departure lounge before boarding a flight to South Africa via Doha.

It said that the cocaine was divided into 30 blocks, laced with dried pepper and wrapped in cellotape, and packed inside Beauty’s two travel bags.

“During her interview, she told operatives she arrived in Nigeria on 30th September specifically to pick up the consignment,” the NDLEA statement said.

“She said she was recruited by another South African lady, who promised her R20,000 on successful delivery.”

Cross-country drug couriers

Drug mules – smugglers who carry illicit substances on or inside their bodies – operate across countries. Daily Maverick has reported on how drug mules often risk their health and freedom to make quick money working for trafficking syndicates who put them on international flights. In October 2026, the South African Police Service said that “a total of 116 drug mules” had been arrested at OR Tambo International Airport over the past two years. They frequently use the Brazil-South Africa corridor. Between October and December 2025 alone, at least six suspected mules linked to the route were apprehended: five at Gauteng’s OR Tambo and one in São Paulo.

Beauty told investigators that she had been introduced to two other members of the drug syndicate – one was based in the United States and the second was a car dealer based in Lagos.

The NDLEA statement said the car dealer was arrested a week after Beauty was detained and had “admitted [to] receiving Qhina at the airport”, and sorting out her hotel stays before she was due to leave Nigeria.

Cannabis and ‘a confession’

The month that Qhina was detained, in October 2026, another South African woman was arrested in Nigeria.

According to the NDLEA, Jessie Gebashe was arrested at the Port Harcourt International Airport, with a cannabis consignment weighing just under 33kg.

It had allegedly been concealed in her luggage.

Gebashe had travelled from Thailand to Doha before reaching Nigeria.

According to the NDLEA: “She confessed to having previously trafficked through other African countries, and was expanding her route to Port Harcourt when she was caught.” DM