The report highlighted several incidents of drug-producing factories being uncovered by the South African Police Services (SAPS). Many of these incidents included the involvement of Mexican nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The presence of Mexican nationals in all these major lab busts points heavily to Mexican cartel involvement, with the former head of Hawks, an elite crime investigative unit in SAPS, stating that he suspected many of these Mexicans had links with the Sinaloa cartel,” the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report highlighted that the frequency of the drug busts, the scale of each factory, and the presence of Mexican nationals could have signalled to cartels that South Africa serves as a large-scale production hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Cape Talk<\/a>, Brookings Institution’s Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown said that the expansion of Mexican cartels around the world, including in South Africa, is a very serious concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained that these cartels, including two of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, recruit local criminal groups and train them to produce highly potent, “very sophisticated” Mexican methamphetamine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felbab-Brown explained that the strategic position of South Africa makes it an ideal country for cartels to produce the drugs, as it is a major trans-shipment hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This has only grown after a lot of international legal trade was rerouted away from the Red Sea around Africa,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained that other crucial targets for the Mexican cartels include Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa lies en route to those markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felbab-Brown explained that another factor causing Mexican cartels to target South Africa is the long history of drug trafficking in the country, often involving drugs such as Heroin, coming from other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained that due to South Africa’s history of synthetic drug production, Mexican cartels can quickly gain access to existing knowledge and local networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felbab-Brown said that another factor pulling the cartels more to South Africa is the country’s institutional landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Often, weak and corrupt law enforcement that has historically been focused on other issues, such as gangs in Cape Town, provides them with a very convenient operating environment,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last factor, according to Felbab-Brown, is that the production of the drugs extends beyond their shipment out of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Mexican cartels are definitely looking to establish local consumption markets in South Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n An alarming finding is that much legal trade has provided a convenient cover for criminal groups to smuggle contraband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, Felbab-Brown highlighted that one of the most common methods of smuggling is hiding drugs in legal cargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felbab-Brown warned that many of these cartels are not only drug trafficking entities, but are also involved in many legal commodities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The multiplicity of legal and illegal trade in South Africa is precisely the rife environment for them,” she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Felbab-Brown explained a pattern that the Mexican cartels across Latin America tend to exhibit. She said that the cartels often push local criminal groups that partner with them against each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She warned that with the rise of Mexican cartels flocking to South Africa, similar patterns of competition could emerge between local allies, which could amplify violence in major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These Mexican cartels also try to enter into political offices and law enforcement, which creates a major threat to governance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mexican drug cartels are expanding their operations in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":862603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2111321576960368958","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2239822196838179","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18034105325850937","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15754,26784],"class_list":["post-879428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-brookings-institution","tag-mexican-drug-cartels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879428"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880147,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879428\/revisions\/880147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}South Africa as an ideal target for Mexican cartels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Untitled-design-2026-10-12T163615.622-1024x576.png\")
<\/a>