In a great sweep of operational success, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has increased its battle against drug smuggling, particularly at strategic points like OR Tambo International Airport. Three high-profile arrests were made in the course of a week – each of them international drug couriers with huge quantities of illegal drugs. The arrests are not isolated events but part of an intelligence-driven sweep that is beginning to bear visible fruit.
On 5 June 2025, a Nigerian national aged 42 years traveling from Sao Paulo, Brazil, was apprehended by SAPS officers. A medical x-ray of the individual indicated he had ingested more than 70 pellets of suspected cocaine. Five days later, a Brazilian female aged 30 years also traveling from Sao Paulo was intercepted after she offered to have ingested more than 100 capsules containing cocaine in her stomach. Later in the same day, an Ethiopian citizen, aged 57, was arrested when he tried to board an aircraft, and more than 90 kilograms of Khat was found in his luggage.
These back-to-back activities demonstrate an SAPS operational realignment – one that prioritizes intelligence-driven interventions, medical screening, and surveillance profiling at entry points. In the last six months alone, more than 23 drug traffickers were caught at OR Tambo International Airport, as reported by SAPS. This strategic focus on transit nodes is increasingly yielding value in interdicting international drug cartels trying to exploit the geography of South Africa as a transit and consumer market.
A strategic response to a complex threat
South Africa’s position as a regional logistics hub, with first-world infrastructure, road network, and airports, has seen it become a valuable prize for international narcotics traffickers. Traffickers from West Africa, Latin America, and Asia have availed themselves of this advantage for decades, making use of Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport as a central facilitation point for the smuggling of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and cannabis into and through the Southern African region.
However, recent SAPS operations show a better comprehension of trafficking dynamics and an emphasis on dismantling these sophisticated networks.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), better known as the Hawks, in partnership with SAPS Crime Intelligence and the Border Management Authority, has ramped up counter-narcotics efforts. Body scanning technologies, canine units, and undercover operatives are now playing a central role in exposing drug couriers. These units work not only to intercept the drugs but to trace the broader syndicates behind the operations.
Arrests, seizures, and convictions: By the numbers
Recent available statistics reveal an unequivocal image of advancement. The SAPS Annual Crime Report 2022/23 reports:
A combined total of 259,698 drug-related arrests throughout the nation were executed.
Over 2 300 kilograms of drugs, such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy, and mandrax, were confiscated.
Gauteng Province, where OR Tambo is located, consistently figures in the top three provinces for drug-related arrests.
Although these figures are lower than in years of pandemics – at least, the pre-COVID-19 pandemic years, by virtue of mobility restrictions – are once more rising as global travel picks up following COVID-19. But the highlight of 2025 is the accuracy of SAPS. Instead of prioritizing merely low-level users and dealers, SAPS appears to be targeting the higher-valued connections along the trafficking supply chain.
Regional trends and global supply chains
South Africa’s drug problems can’t be viewed in isolation. São Paulo, Brazil – where two of the recent drug mules originated – is a notorious hub for cocaine production and trafficking. The infamous “Cocaine Air Bridge” between Brazil and Africa has been in operation for decades, as West African cartels utilize mules to ship drugs to Johannesburg for ultimate distribution to Europe or Asia.
Meanwhile, the interception of a courier carrying 90 kilograms of Khat – traditionally trafficked from East Africa – illustrates the role played by OR Tambo as a transcontinental node, not just for Latin American cocaine but also for African-borne stimulants. Khat, legal in parts of East Africa, is regulated in South Africa and Europe for its amphetamine-like effects.
SAPS’s increased scrutiny at OR Tambo is a message to local drug cartels and international players alike: South Africa is no longer the soft touch that it once was.
Intelligence-driven policing: A turning point
What’s new about this latest burst of arrests is SAPS’s open departure from and alignment towards intelligence-led policing, a method promoted by security experts for years but always adhered to as nothing more than lip service previously. SAPS appears to be learning from previous mistakes and international best practice, utilising data analysis, inter-agency liaison, and profiling programs in order to improve targeting.
During an interview last year, SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola underscored that the department was “transiting from reactive policing to proactive, intelligence-driven enforcement”.
The OR Tambo arrests now validate this transition. They illustrate SAPS isn’t sitting around waiting for tips or informants but is actively monitoring flight routes, drug use patterns, and travel habits.
Further, the cooperation of SAPS with foreign law enforcement organizations like INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and regional task forces like SARPCCO (Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation) has been enhanced to better share intelligence. Such arrangements facilitate monitoring of courier activity across borders as well as pre-emptive interdictions.
Challenges remain
While it has this momentum, SAPS’s war on drugs also has its pitfalls. Corruption at ports of entry, under-serviced border posts, as well as the forensic analysis and court backlog continue to hinder mass dismantling of drug syndicates.
To this is added the issue of drug addiction and growing domestic demand for drugs. The 2023 UNODC World Drug Report signaled a new cocaine market emerging in southern Africa, and South Africa is no exception. Domestic gang networks, particularly in the Western Cape and Gauteng, are still squarely in the synthetic drug and street sales business, fueling crime and addiction.
To secure victory in the drug war in the long run, there should be added prevention, rehabilitation, and public information to complement law enforcement. Prevention programs among youth and high-risk populations must be undertaken to reduce demand and end the cycle of drug addiction.
A new phase in the Drug war
The recent police arrests at OR Tambo International Airport are more than another police triumph – they are a turning of the tide in the struggle for power in South Africa’s long and bloody war against drugs. SAPS, through advanced planning, international cooperation, and intelligence-driven operations, is starting to get the better of the crooks.
With more than 23 drug runners intercepted at OR Tambo in just six months and an added focus on high-impact interventions, the SAPS is combating its way back. Despite
challenges galore, these raids are a sign that South Africa is no longer simply a transit point for global drug cartels – but is fast becoming a stern front in the global war on drugs
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