South Africa and its regional partners are establishing a multi-agency fusion centre aimed at illicit drug laboratories and trafficking routes, as officials warn that Southern Africa is becoming a manufacturing hub for illicit drugs.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia raised the sharp rise in clandestine laboratories at a media briefing held alongside a Ministerial Troika Meeting of the Trilateral Planning Cell in Pretoria this week. The cell brings together South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania, with backing from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
The announcement follows police discoveries of alleged multi-million-rand mandrax operations in Krugersdorp and at Hartbeespoort Dam, and reports that Latin American cartels are setting up industrial-scale methamphetamine processing in South Africa.
The fusion centre is intended to integrate intelligence across borders and target the infrastructure of syndicates moving drugs along the Southern Route.
