Five Mexican nationals were arrested by South African police during a raid on a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory on a farm, a spokesperson for the Hawks, the elite police unit in Pretoria, told AFP on Monday.

In addition to manufacturing equipment and precursor chemicals, methamphetamine worth 350 million rand (more than 17 million euros), packaged in lunch boxes, was seized during the operation carried out on Friday in Volksrust, about 250 km southeast of Johannesburg.

The suspects' possible link to a cartel "is still under investigation," the Hawks spokesman added, adding that a South African was also in custody.

Similar raids are multiplying in South Africa: in July 2024, around 2 billion rand of methamphetamine (nearly 100 million euros) was seized in Groblersdal and three Mexican nationals arrested; a few months later, in November 2024, 100 million rand of "crystal meth" (nearly 5 million euros) was discovered in Rietfontein and a Mexican citizen arrested.

Regarding these operations, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) estimates in a July 2025 report that the "scale of seizures and the involvement of Mexican cartels" indicate that these laboratories "supply international markets."

"There is an inexhaustible demand for cocaine and methamphetamine in the Australian and New Zealand markets, where the retail prices of these two substances are among the highest in the world," adds the Geneva-based NGO.

She notes that the significant licit trade flows already existing between South Africa and Australia "may also contribute to the growth of this route" for methamphetamine.