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South Africa’s border police have intercepted a truck arriving from Malawi carrying drugs valued at nearly one billion rand ($61 million), officials said on Thursday.
The vehicle was stopped at the border with Zimbabwe on Wednesday, where security operatives conducted an extensive inspection lasting several hours.
In the eight-hour search, security forces discovered more than 700 kilograms of methaqualone, a substance used in the production of mandrax, a highly addictive illicit drug.
Officials estimated the street value of the seized drugs at close to one billion rand, describing it as one of the major recent interceptions along the regional border corridor.
Two Malawian nationals and a Zambian suspect were arrested in connection with the seizure, according to a border agency spokesperson.
Investigators are now working to establish where the consignment was headed and whether it is linked to a wider transnational criminal network operating within or beyond the region.
Authorities noted that while mandrax has a known demand in South Africa, the scale of the shipment has raised concerns about increasingly sophisticated drug trafficking routes in southern Africa.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies in South Africa have also uncovered several large-scale drug production operations involving foreign nationals, including suspected links to Mexican criminal networks, raising fears of expanding cartel influence in the region.
