By: Helmut Mahongo
The 13 suspects of a multimillion-rand industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory that operated in the northwest of Johannesburg appeared in court yesterday.
The suspects were arrested in May after residents reported strong chemical odours coming from an isolated farm posing as a game lodge.
The suspects include nationals from South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Mexico.
All 13 suspects face multiple charges ranging from drug manufacturing, illegal possession of precious metals, and illegal possession of hazardous materials to contravention of the Immigration Act.
On the 21st of last month, the South African Police Service (SAPS) arrested five suspects for allegedly operating a multimillion-rand crystal methamphetamine manufacturing operation on a farm in Musina, Limpopo province.
This is the third clandestine drug laboratory to be shut down in Limpopo.
The suspects comprised two Mexican nationals, two Zimbabwean nationals and a Malawian national.
South Africa’s geography and its global trade links make it a major drug transit hub and an expanding market for synthetic drugs, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
South Africa is not the only country on the continent with these issues; Nigeria, one of the major economic powerhouses on the continent, faces the same issue.
In May, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA, Nigeria’s federal law enforcement, reported to have destroyed the largest secret methamphetamine laboratory ever uncovered in the country.
The authorities recovered about 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and precursor chemicals with an estimated international street value of US$362.9 million, about N$ 5.8 billion.
The bust led to the arrest of an alleged drug kingpin, three Mexican nationals and six Nigerian collaborators in coordinated operations across Ogun and Lagos states.
According to the UN Drug Report 2026, more and more people are using drugs than ever before, with synthetic substances dominating the illicit drug market.
An estimated 331 million people used drugs worldwide in 2024 alone, which is equivalent to 6.2% of the global population aged 15 to 64. This was an increase from 5.2% a decade ago, the report found.
The report also highlighted the fast pace at which synthetic drugs are evolving.
Stating that in 2024 alone, authorities identified 755 new psychoactive substances, of which 118 were reported for the first time, and the number of different drugs detected in seizures around the world was five times higher than it was in 2000.
The market is becoming very diverse, but also perhaps more dangerous,” said Chloé Carpentier, lead researcher for the report, in an interview with UN News.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has attributed the rise in synthetic illegal drugs to the Taliban, Afghanistan’s de facto authority, banning opium cultivation in 2022.
Methamphetamine, according to the UN News Global Perspective Human Stories, has become a truly global market, with new trafficking routes expanding across the Near and Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.
The authorities estimated the value of the drugs produced in the 13-suspect South African case at around 250 million Rand. The magistrate ordered the suspects remanded in custody until September 21.
