Crystal Meth at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI). [AFP]
South African police have uncovered a major crystal meth laboratory on the border with Zimbabwe and rounded up several foreign nationals including two Mexicans, they said Friday.
The overnight operation follows a series of drugs busts involving Mexican nationals over the past months that have led authorities to suspect Latin American cartels are expanding into Africa.
Security forces raided the laboratory late Thursday and seized drugs and equipment worth around 600 million rand ($37 million), they said in a statement.
They arrested two Mexican nationals, two Zimbabweans and a Malawian. The operation was hidden on a farm near the northern border town of Musina.
"The discovery has exposed an alleged sophisticated, industrial-scale operation believed to have been established for the manufacture of dangerous illicit substances destined for distribution," the statement said.
Police in May uncovered a multi-million-dollar methamphetamine laboratory and arrested 11 suspects, including four Mexicans, on a remote farm northwest of Johannesburg.
Authorities estimated the value of the drugs produced there at around 250 million rand.