R450m cocaine plane case ties Australian smuggler to ‘Big Five cartel base’ Gauteng

An Australian cocaine smuggler, Ahmed Haouchar, was recently sentenced to a decade in jail there, and it is now clear that he had direct ties to Gauteng, where the alleged Big Five cartel is headquartered.

The cartel is central to South Africa’s staggering law enforcement scandal that erupted in July last year when KwaZulu-Natal police boss Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that it had infiltrated the country’s criminal justice system, politics and private security.

According to Mkhwanazi, the Big Five is headquartered in Gauteng, and according to Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo, it is linked to other provinces, including SA’s gangsterism capital, the Western Cape.

Gauteng is central to two connected sets of cases, most of which have played out in Australia, involving a R450-million cocaine consignment.

Big Five territory

In October 2023, the consignment was smuggled on a passenger plane from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, Gauteng to Sydney, Australia, where it was intercepted at the airport.

Details about the exact origin of the cocaine, where it was produced and sourced from, are not yet clear.

But the fact that the drug left SA from Gauteng underscores the elements making up the country’s law enforcement scandal and highlights how this country fits into transnational trafficking.

As for Haouchar, he was handed the 10-year jail term in Australia on Friday, 13 February 2026, for coordinating the cocaine’s movement.

This directly connects Haouchar to Gauteng, which means that either he or his associates were in contact with individuals in the province. Several arrests were previously made in Gauteng in a case set for criminal trial next week.

Haouchar was identified as being part of the cocaine scheme through a police investigation codenamed Operation Lucian that was launched in Australia nearly four years ago.

Secret investigation and airport surveillance

Operation Lucian began in October 2022 after an airline reported suspicious activity near a passenger plane in Johannesburg that was set to fly to Sydney.

Two men at Australia’s international airport in Sydney were subsequently spotted removing items from the cargo hold of the same flight.

A year later, in October 2023, the police there made their move.

They intercepted the 100kg cocaine consignment in a container in the cargo hold of the aircraft that arrived at Sydney Airport from Johannesburg.

At the time, the Australian Federal Police announced that five suspects were arrested there.

Without naming Haouchar, it alleged he was “liaising with organised figures overseas to source the cocaine, have it placed on an aircraft and then arrange for its onward distribution in Australia.”

The mention of “figures overseas” appears to reference individuals in SA, and possibly other countries.

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

In 2024, Haouchar pleaded guilty to the cocaine import conspiracy tying Gauteng to Australia, and this culminated in his sentencing last week.

An Australian Federal Police statement, again not naming Haouchar, said: “His jail term follows the sentencing of three other men – including two trusted insiders – to a combined maximum of 15 years and nine months’ imprisonment for their role in the same criminal enterprise.”

‘First of their kind’ arrests and imminent trial

Meanwhile, the month after the cocaine was intercepted in Sydney, the South African Police Service announced that five suspects had been arrested after a connected crackdown was held at OR Tambo International Airport in November 2023.

A police statement at the time said the arrests were carried out following an intelligence-driven operation into “allegations that these suspects are employees of various companies at OR Tambo International Airport where they are said to be facilitating the thoroughfare of drugs coming into and out of the airport.”

Two of the suspects were employed by the Airports Company of South Africa.

“This is a first operation of its kind in relation to transnational drug trafficking perpetrated through OR Tambo International Airport, where a drug seizure made abroad was positively linked to suspects in SA for their complicity,” an SAPS statement read.

The police subsequently identified the five suspects as Stanley Nkuna, Justice Mahloma, Madimetje Mahangwhane, Thulani Sibiya and Fuba Mahlangu. They appeared in the Magistrate’s Court in Kempton Park.

This week, Daily Maverick contacted the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks in Gauteng to find out what had happened to the case. Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale said all five accused were out on bail and a trial had been set for 24 to 26 February 2026.

The R450-million cocaine at the centre of the case connects the accused in that trial to Haouchar and his associates.

Band of brothers

Haouchar, in turn, is connected to various others who have been accused of criminality. He is related to some of them.

Haouchar is the brother of Bilal Haouchar, who was last year reportedly sentenced to eight years in jail in Lebanon for drug and money laundering matters.

Before that, in 2019, Bilal was facing intense leading action in Australia.

The New South Wales police said he was “wanted on two outstanding warrants, including an arrest warrant for kidnapping, and breaching a community order”.

Another of Haouchar’s brothers is Nedal, who in 2023 faced drug and money laundering accusations.

A tribunal decision from Australia relating to a Haouchar family member (who shares a name with Ahmed Haouchar) and a revoked firearm licence, dated November last year, described the Haouchar brothers (without naming each specifically) as involved in organised crime.

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

It said they were “variously charged and/or convicted of, offences including armed robbery, the supply of commercial and large quantities of cocaine, dealing with millions of dollars of proceeds of crime, directing the activities of a criminal group, and other crimes”.

The Haouchar group has apparently clashed with members of Comanchero, an outlaw motorcycle gang in Australia.

Daily Maverick previously reported that Comanchero, also involved in the international drug trade, has connections to SA. DM