South African ports used as 'transit points' for drugs
A crime expert says the latest multi-million rand drug bust in Durban is
a clear indication international drug cartels are using the city's port as a
transit point to get cocaine to the rest of the world.
Dr Guy Lamb is a criminologist based at Stellenbosch University.
"Because of the US war on crime or drugs specifically you have seen a lot of US resources put in to combating the trade and the trafficking. Cocaine traffickers have had to look for alternative routes to get their products to markets.
"South Africa has been the transshipment point and another important thing is that most of the product comes to South Africa and doesn't stand South Africa some of them would, some of them go to Australia."
Cocaine with an estimated street value of R70 million was found hidden in white paint buckets on a shipping container at the Durban Harbour on Wednesday.
The drugs are believed to have been shipped from Brazil.
The bust comes months after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a global report on cocaine in March.
The report found there was a significant rise in cocaine flows to South Africa in the last few years, with KZN and Durban Harbour highlighted for increased activity.
It found the harbour was being used as a transit point for cartels who want to move cargo to countries such as Australia, India, Hong Kong, China, Macao, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
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"So, in the case of South African Durban Harbour in particular and this is where we have seen most of the cocaine seizures happening.
"The day we heard from you it shows very low level of cocaine so for example a few 100kgs from 2002 up until 2021.
"Minor seizures relative to other places where seizures happen and 2021 there's like this massive procedural of like 5 000kg of cocaine so it's clearly an indication that Durban and South African Ports are being used as transshipment points."
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