The five Musina farm suspects will appear in court on Monday to face charges related to the manufacture and possession of illicit drugs. “The discovery has exposed an alleged sophisticated industrial-scale operation believed to have been established for the manufacture of dangerous illicit substances intended for distribution,” police said in a statement. South Africa is one of the world’s largest methamphetamine consumption markets, according to the 2022 Global State of Harm Reduction report. The UN says its geography and “porous borders” also make it an ideal transit point for illicit drugs. South Africa is not the only African country where illicit laboratories have been found. In May this year, Nigeria’s anti-drug agency said it had “dealt another devastating blow” and dismantled “a highly sophisticated, multimillion-dollar Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine production syndicate.” The laboratory at the center of an ongoing court case was discovered in a densely forested area of the West African nation. Counternarcotics officials from the United States Africa Command (Africom) recently told the BBC that since 2023, 14 Mexican-run laboratories have been raided on the continent, in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and South Africa. Experts believe this indicates that Mexico’s criminal cartels are increasingly using Africa, not only as a trafficking hub, but also as a production base.
