INTELBRIEF
June 16, 2026
Cartel Networks are Establishing a Greater Foothold in Africa
Bottom Line Up Front
- Cartel networks are adopting a more hands-on approach to their modus operandi in Africa, marking a new chapter after four decades of facilitating illicit drug flows through the continent to reach destination markets in Europe and North America.
- A recently raided methamphetamine production facility in South Africa is the latest in a string of major meth lab busts in Kenya and Nigeria where Mexican chemists were sent on behalf of either the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to establish greater direct presence and develop local synthetic illicit drug production in Africa.
- The increasing involvement of Mexican cartels in Africa’s meth trade is likely a direct effect from the increasing constraints on Latin American production sites and smuggling routes amidst the U.S.-led counternarcotics campaign in the region.
- The growing presence of Latin American cartels in Africa raises several risks to local and regional security, with the likely introduction of drone technology to local militant and criminal groups, potential interaction with terrorist organizations, and challenges to governance and law enforcement.
Last week, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), widely known as the country’s elite ‘Hawks Unit,’ conducted a raid on a rural farm in Swartruggens, discovering an industrial-scale laboratory that contained over 481 kilos of methamphetamine — estimated to be worth around $61 million. The discovery did not break national records; however, it did confirm a growing trend both in South Africa and across the continent: the involvement of cartel-associated Mexican nationals in local synthetic drug production.
South African authorities affirmed that the May 2026 raid was one in four total tied to Mexico-based cartel networks in the last two years. Additional discoveries of meth production sites in Nigeria’s Abidagba Forest in May 2026 and Kenya’s Olelep village in September 2024 have also revealed the involvement of Latin American crime groups, specifically the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) cartels. In all cases, Mexican laboratory technicians, chemists, often referred to as “cooks,” and logistical experts were arrested for their work at these facilities — often disguised as provincial farms or factories — where they advised local actors on how to acquire the chemicals necessary for illicit drug production, assemble and disassemble temporary “box lab” facilities, move operations between locations, and smuggle drugs to prime consumption markets.
The presence of Latin American criminal organizations in Africa is, by no means, new. As far back as the 1980s, drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) used West and North Africa as a point to transit cocaine flows to European destination markets. Over time, groups like the Brazil-based Primerio Comando da Capital (PCC), Colombian cartels, and Mexico-based groups like Sinaloa, Zetas, and CJNG all established cooperative partnerships with local criminal syndicates, jihadist groups, and even law enforcement in countries like Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Mali, South Africa, and Senegal, primarily for cocaine flows. However, this engagement did not translate to a heavy presence of Latin Americans. As expert Vanda Felbab Brown notes, Latin American cartel networks — particularly the Sinaloa — initially undertook a more offhanded approach, co-opting and relying upon local networks to carry out trafficking logistics of staging illicit drugs for transit to Europe.
However, the evolution of both drug markets and geopolitics has incentivized cartel groups like the Sinaloa and CJNG to substantially change their strategy and nature of engagement in Africa. Firstly, there has been an explosion in the availability and demand for synthetic substances — particularly amphetamine-type stimulants such as methamphetamine — across global markets, including consumption hubs in Africa. This, combined with the reality that these drugs are easily and cheaply produced — using dual-use chemicals that can evade regulations — create incentives for localized production in African countries. Secondly, several countries on the continent provide conducive conditions for both local and foreign criminal groups to manufacture synthetic drugs. The Africa Organized Crime Index revealed that in 2025, 92.5 percent of African countries express low resilience to organized crime, with rampant corruption, weak institutions, and reduced oversight and surveillance capability enabling the presence of criminal entrenchment. Finally, the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) south of its border has played a role, failing to eradicate cartel activity completely and instead create a ‘balloon effect’, with spillover of production and trafficking outside of cartels’ traditional areas of operation. The U.S.’ approach of indiscriminate strikes on civilian boats suspected of maritime smuggling, support of assassinations against key drug kingpins like the CNJG’s head ‘El Mencho’, use of intelligence agents in dismantling drug production laboratories, and other measures, have imposed greater risks of interdiction for local TCOs. However, their years of engagement outside of Latin America in Europe, Africa, and East Asia have created opportunities to diversify their activities, cheapen production, and move closer to destination markets.
This trend has raised alarm across U.S. and global law enforcement agencies, particularly with the increased risk of interaction and collaboration with malign groups already operating across the continent. Broadly, there is a growing concern about the exchange of techniques, weaponry, and tactics between Mexican cartels and local criminal networks that could complicate security, governance, and interdiction. Officials and expert analysts are particularly concerned about the sharing of drone technology and maneuvering procedures that cartels have weaponized in Latin America, not only in drug trafficking operations but also against local authorities and civilians, to African groups.
The commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) General Dagvin R.M. Anderson has also raised concern of cartel-facilitated narco-terrorism in Africa during testimony for the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, stating that of 12 drug laboratories raided with U.S. intelligence support amongst partner countries in Africa, 11 featured the involvement of Mexican cartel members. Beyond reports of groups like al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) engaging in low-level drug smuggling, there is scarce evidence of close collaboration between Latin American cartel networks and local terrorist organizations when it comes to industrial-scale production and trafficking. However, the Trump administration’s designation of cartels like Sinaloa and the CNJG as foreign terrorist organizations early last year augments the U.S.’ attention and response capacity.
The surge in established meth laboratories across Africa indicates that the continent is quickly losing its status as a ‘pit stop’ and staging ground for drug flows bound for Europe. They also indicate a growing involvement and sponsorship from Latin America-based cartel networks as criminal actors seek to adapt and diversify amidst the U.S.-led campaign against DTOs. Greater, more direct presence from cartels like the Sinaloa and CJNG not only translates into the transfer of knowledge about illicit drug production and smuggling, but also exchange of weapons, tactics, and relationships that can embolden local criminal syndicates, militias, and terrorist organizations.