By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
On Tuesday evening, 28 October 2025, a crime intelligence operation led to the discovery of R20 Million worth of cocaine in Midrand, Gauteng.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) explained that the operation took place on Tuesday evening, as a multidisciplinary team which was led by crime intelligence as they were following leads about heaps of drugs being stored in a plot in Blue Hills, Midrand.
Members from the SAPS Johannesburg K9 unit and the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit as well as the local criminal record centre. The intended destination for the drugs was Cape Town, Western Cape and were brought into South Africa according to preliminary investigations.
80 kilograms worth of cocaine was found on the plot which was hidden in a storage unit when the police had searched the property. The police arrested a 56 year old man who had been the proprietor of the plot.
The man is expected to appear in front of the Midrand Magistrate Court later this week as he will be facing charges of possession of drugs and dealing in drugs. Last month on 4 September 2025, the police services in Brazil were notified of an abandoned box in the cargo area of Sao Paulo’s international airport.
55 bricks of cocaine were found inside the box along with a phone, a power bank and a note that implied that the box was destined to be shipped out to South Africa.
The previous week on 28 August 2025, Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service reported that 49.5 Kg of cocaine was destined to be shipped out to the port of Durban. This string of drug busts all linked to South Africa suggests that there is an operation taking place amongst drug cartels in South Africa and Brazil being in cahoots.
“The drug was placed in the container inside the port without the exporters knowledge, a method known as ‘rip-on/rip off’” the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service said in a statement. The linkage of drugs going into Durban may be linked to claims made by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi who in July this year made some explosive claims about the police leadership in South Africa protecting and enabling criminal cartels.
In his statements made in the Madlanga Commission he had expressed that there may be police involvement in trafficking drugs, as these slew of drug busts may link to those claims.