meth

Sept. 20 (UPI) — Police in South Africa have seized crystal methamphetamine worth around $20 million at a lab on a rural property, according to law enforcement officials.

Authorities also collected weapons and cash while dismantling the clandestine drug manufacturing operation, located on a farm in the eastern part of the country.

Six people were arrested, five of which are from a “North American country,” police said in a statement. Two other suspects were able to elude police.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the five foreign nationals in custody were in the country illegally. They are facing possible charges related to contravening the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act as well as the Immigration Act,” police said in the statement.

Authorities said they were led to the laboratory by an anonymous tip.

Two Mexican nationals were arrested last year at a meth operation at an unrelated farm in a rural area in separarte part of the country.

“This massive success demonstrates that cooperation between police in Mpumalanga and other entities, both government and private, is bearing expected results. Police are working hard to rid the streets of Mpumalanga of all types of drugs, and dismantling a clandestine drug lab, which is the source of these drugs, is a step in the right direction,” South African Police Service Maj. Gen. Zeph Mkhwanazi said in the agency’s statement.

“We applaud the community members who continue to work with police and provide valuable tip-offs. Intelligence-driven operations are ongoing, and we, as police, will stop at nothing in our quest to collapse the illicit drug trade.”

Sept. 15 (UPI) — U.S. border agents in Texas said they uncovered $16 million worth of methamphetamine hidden in a load of mangoes.

The drug delivery was uncovered weeks after $50 million of the illegal drug was discovered in another bust at America’s southern border.

Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Laredo said Monday that a tractor trailer shipment of frozen mangos allegedly carried hundreds of packages of what authorities believe to be illicit methamphetamine weighing nearly 2,000 pounds.

“It is not unusual to encounter hard narcotics comingled with fresh produce,” according to Alberto Flores, director of the Laredo Port of Entry.

Flores said border officers made the discovery last Tuesday in what he described as an “effective combination of targeting and high-tech tools to take down this significant methamphetamine load” of about 733 packages that weighed nearly 1,791 pounds during a traffic stop at World Trade Bridge.

According to U.S. officials, the payload had a value of more than $16 million.

CBP agents seized the narcotics hidden within the shipment after the mango-carrying truck was referred for a secondary inspection and underwent a “nonintrusive inspection” by a canine unit.

The most recent drug bust comes a few weeks after the U.S. border agency revealed it uncovered nearly $50 million of the illegal drug during two separate stops in the same area.

On Monday, Flores added that seizures of hard narcotics “on this scale underscore not only the pervasive nature of the drug threat but our steadfast commitment to keeping our border secure,” he said in a statement.

A criminal investigation is ongoing by agents of Homeland Security Investigations.

Sept. 4 (UPI) — A pair of drug seizures by Customs and Border Protection agents along the Texas-Mexico border has netted methamphetamine shipments with an estimated street value of $50 million, the agency announced on Thursday.

In the first and larger of the two, agents stopped a truck hauling aluminum burrs that was concealing $37 million worth of the drug through the Colombia-Solidarity cargo facility in Laredo.

“Physical inspection led to the discovery of four sacks of alleged methamphetamine with a combined weight of 4,241 pounds concealed within the shipment,” a release from CBP said.

In the other seizure, agents seized 488 packages of what they believed was methamphetamine with a street value of $13.2 million in a commercial truck hauling a load of broccoli at the Pharr international cargo facility in Pharr, Texas.

Nearly 1,500 pounds of the drug was concealed in the roof of the truck, CBP said.

The seizures are the latest in a series of drug stops along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

In June, agents seized a load of amphetamines valued at $6.7 billion being smuggled across the border at the Pharr crossing by someone in a stolen sports sedan.

“The cargo environment continues to be a top choice for trafficking organizations but our CBP officers, along with our tools and technology, are a force to be reckoned with,” Carlos Rodriguez, port director of the Pharr port said at the time.

Australians consumed drugs with a street value of about $7.5bn, representing a 34 percent rise in annual consumption.

There has been a sharp rise in drug use among Australians, with cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin consumption all hitting record levels, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) latest wastewater analysis.

Published on Friday, the ACIC’s annual report revealed that Australians consumed an estimated 22.2 tonnes of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA (commonly known as “ecstasy”) between August 2023 and August 2024.

This represents a 34 percent increase on the previous year’s findings, with marked increases in the consumption of cocaine (69 percent), MDMA (49 percent), methamphetamine (21 percent), and heroin (14 percent).

The drugs had a combined estimated street value of 11.5 billion Australian dollars (about $7.5bn), according to the ACIC. Meth alone accounted for 8.9 billion Australian dollars (about $5.8bn) – or 78 percent – of that total.

Wastewater analysis, the process of testing sewage water for contaminants, is a widely used tool to measure drug use within national populations. The data was collected from Australia’s capital cities and regional sites, covering some 57 percent of the country.

The increase in drug consumption reflects the “recovery of these illicit drug markets following the impact of COVID-19 restrictions”, the ACIC report said.

It added that “transnational and domestic serious and organised crime groups have rapidly re-established and expanded their operations” following the pandemic.

ACIC chief Heather Cook said crime groups are exploiting high demand for illicit drugs in Australia, where they are “maximising profit at the expense of the community’s security and wellbeing”.

“The 2.2 tonne increase in national meth consumption is concerning because 12.8 tonnes is the highest annual level recorded by the programme and the drug causes significant community harm,” she said.

“Similarly, there has been a large increase in national cocaine consumption, also to the highest annual level recorded by our wastewater programme,” Cook added.

Wastewater was also tested for alcohol and nicotine – which remained the most consumed lawful drugs – as well as cannabis and ketamine.

Cannabis remained the most consumed illicit drug among Australians, with higher average consumption in regional areas than in capital cities. Capital cities, however, recorded higher consumption of cocaine, MDMA, heroin and ketamine.

The Northern Territory saw the highest increase in meth, cocaine and MDMA consumption, according to the report, while Tasmania recorded the highest increase in heroin.

The increases in meth, cocaine and MDMA consumption are likely to continue up to 2027, according to ACIC data modelling.