‘Drug mules are now even more innovative’

They move illicit drugs in creative hiding spots

From headphones laced with cocaine to drugs hidden in plastics inside cooler boxes and suitcases at the airport.

These are some of the hiding spots that drug mules use to transport drugs in and outside of SA using airports, in particular the OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) where at least 11 mules have been intercepted by police in the past two months.

"Criminals are becoming more innovative in how they transport drugs like hiding them in meat boxes," said national police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe.

"We have not necessarily seen a spike in the arrests or detection but what we have noticed is that the mules are ingesting and transporting more drugs now than what they used to do pre-Covid. They have been become more daring and are taking more risks," said Mathe. 

In one of the most recent cases, a 21-year-old SA woman was profiled and intercepted as she arrived on a flight from São Paulo, Brazil, just before 9am on Sunday last week. She was taken to a local hospital where an X-ray confirmed the presence of foreign objects in her stomach. Police said she passed 100 drug bullets, more than the average number of drug bullets that drug mules intercepted at the airport usually carried.

On September 22, a 30-year-old Namibian drug mule was arrested after arriving from São Paulo. She too was taken for medical examination and released more than 60 drug bullets. 

"Traffickers use vulnerable young women who are easy to be coerced. Some of them know what they are getting themselves into [trafficking] while others claim to have been duped into a holiday overseas and only find out once in a foreign country that they would have to transport drugs back to SA. Some don't even have money to come back home and are forced to act as mules," said Mathe. 

Legal counsel Nastasja Otrebski, from Otrebski Attorneys Inc in Johanesburg, said her company deals specifically with clients who have been arrested for drug-related crimes. Currently they have five active cases of trafficking before the Kempton Park magistrate's courts. According to her past experience, 98% of her clients are women who find themselves in desperate financial situations that makes them vulnerable to drug dealers.

Some of them know what they are getting themselves into [trafficking] while others claim to have been duped into a holiday overseas and only find out once in a foreign country that they would have to transport drugs back to SA.Brig Athlenda Mathe

"Most of these women are initially found in bars and pubs and then slowly lured into the cross-border trafficking. These women are asked to assist with the odd or smaller jobs [within SA] and they get paid quite a large amount of money to get them trapped or hooked into the amount of money that can be made in the illegal business," said Otrebski.

"When they are offered large amounts of money, it is difficult to just leave it as a one-time thing.  Once they have done their odd or smaller jobs, they are offered a higher amount of money to smuggle drugs into or outside of the country. Some of the women were sex workers, some women were just trying to get money to support their kids," she said. 

Otrebski cited Brazil, Mauritius and Mexico as being the top three countries where mules either travel from or are going to when they get busted at ORTIA. 

She said most of them are caught through their behaviour at the airport or how they book their tickets to fly out. 

"Some women [mules] buy tickets last minute and a man would have been the one who purchased it, which is suspicious behaviour. They [mules] usually travel in pairs while the man [dealer] who bought the ticket does not go with. But what normally happens is that these bosses allow these mules to be caught so that a larger shipment can go through at the airport. It [the arrest of mules] causes a distraction for the rest of the shipment to go through," said Otrebski.

She said the place where the drugs are found in the mule's possession does not matter in law and what the courts take into consideration is the amount and the type of drug that the mule was transporting at the time of their arrest. Depending on this, a first-time trafficker can be sentenced to between 15 to 25 years in jail.

"Our courts are taking a harsher approach on drug dealing matters as more people are being arrested for drug-related matters," said Otrebski.

The Border Management Authority (BMA) said it had seen a spike in drug detection and arrests at ORTIA due to improved joint operations which include police and Sars officials.

"Most of the interceptions are intelligence-driven and methods we apply cannot be disclosed. More joint efforts of BMA, SAPS, Sars and other role players are being coordinated and more work is being done on the ground to ensure that detections are successful," said BMA spokesperson Mmemme Mogotsi. 

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