On August 20, South African police raided a farm near Musina, a town in Limpopo province close to the Zimbabwean border, and discovered an industrial-scale crystal methamphetamine laboratory.
Five people were arrested including two Mexicans, while police seized drugs and equipment worth approximately 600 million rand ($37 million). The operation involved South African authorities working alongside the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The presence of Mexican nationals in a meth laboratory near South Africa’s northern border might once have appeared unusual.
It isn’t anymore.
Why not?
South African authorities have uncovered at least five major methamphetamine operations and arrested at least 16 Mexican suspects across four provinces in two years.
