Cartels shift meth production to Africa as South Africa cracks down on Mexican-linked labs

South African police have dismantled four industrial-scale drug laboratories over the past 18 months, seizing more than $150 million worth of crystal methamphetamine and arresting eight Mexican nationals, in a sign that global cartels are shifting drug production closer to African consumer markets.

The labs, which produced the stimulant known locally as tik, reflect a broader structural change in international drug trafficking. Criminal organisations are increasingly moving manufacturing operations from Latin America to Africa to reduce the risks associated with cross-border smuggling.

Security analysts say Mexico-based cartels are playing a central role in this shift, particularly in South Africa and Nigeria. Industrial meth labs first emerged in Nigeria around 2016, allegedly developed in collaboration with Mexican syndicates.

“There is a concerted effort by transnational organised crime gangs, specifically manufacturing drugs, and we are seeing a change in their modus operandi,” said Andy Mashaile, a security strategist and retired Interpol ambassador.

“This is exactly what the Mexicans have done,” he told South African broadcaster SABC News in September 2025. “They have changed their tactics of manufacturing in Mexico and now manufacture in South Africa, which is a serious cause for concern.”

Rural labs, foreign nationals

Mashaile said cartels are now smuggling chemical precursors through West Africa and setting up operations in rural areas of South Africa with minimal police presence.

South Africa is home to an estimated 500,000 illicit drug users. Historically, meth production in Western Cape relied on precursor chemicals from Chinese syndicates, often exchanged for poached abalone. Those operations were typically small and unsophisticated.

The scale and speed of the current shift has overwhelmed law enforcement. South Africa has deployed military personnel to assist police in combating violent organised crime and drug gangs in Western Cape, Gauteng and Eastern Cape provinces.

“South Africa’s organised crime landscape is evolving faster than the country can build the institutional capacity needed to address it,” Ryan Cummings, director of the Signal Risk consultancy, told The Africa Report in January.

West Africa’s role hardens

West Africa has served as a major transit point for drug trafficking from Latin America to Europe since the late 1950s. Traffickers exploit container shipping, lightly supervised ports and fragmented maritime security to move drugs and precursor chemicals through commercial routes.

A researcher from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who studies organised crime in the region told The Africa Report that criminal networks facing tighter controls in the Americas will seek out territories with lower risk and greater financial opacity.

“The result is not necessarily more drugs moving through West Africa, but a hardening of its role as a dependable link in the chain,” the academic said. “Displacement does not stop at transit. It can also reshape where drugs are produced and processed.”

Weak institutions, high criminality

The Africa Organized Crime Index 2025 found that organised crime has expanded across the continent since 2019. It said 92.5% of African countries have shown low resilience to organised crime, with 23 facing a dangerous combination of high criminality and weak institutions.

South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were ranked as the continent’s largest synthetic drug markets. Nigeria, also a major destination and transit point for weapons trafficking, was named the fifth most violent country in the world by the Index.

Mashaile called on African governments to open dialogues with Central and South American nations and forge new security partnerships.

“We should engage the states where these drugs are manufactured,” he said. “Law enforcement agencies must devise new strategies, counter-intelligence and eradicate the distribution and manufacturing of drugs, as well as destroy the new methods used by international drug syndicates.”