The arrest of five employees for allegedly facilitating the movement of narcotics through OR Tambo International — the country’s biggest and busiest airport — is disturbing yet encouraging.
The suspects, due to appear in court on Friday, were collared in what the Hawks described as the “first operation of its kind in relation to transnational drug trafficking” perpetrated through Johannesburg's main airport, known as the “Gateway to the African continent”.
What made this bust different is it relates to a large consignment of drugs recently seized in Australia that was “positively linked to suspects in South Africa for their complicity”, according to the Hawks.
It’s not uncommon to hear about drug mules being intercepted while departing or arriving at our airports. Just a few days ago a 58-year-old woman from Brakpan made the news for trying to smuggle eight 1kg blocks of compressed dagga worth about R400,000 through a boarding gate at OR Tambo International. It was destined for the Middle East.
But one must wonder how many of these mules, and consignments of cargo disguised as something else, evade detection? How many deliveries are executed successfully?
What if the ones that slip through the cracks have inside help?
The latest swoop features three employees at companies servicing the airport and two staff from the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa). It’s well known that international crime cartels and syndicates find ways to “corrupt” officials — blackmail and wads of cash spring to mind — to peddle their next dose of euphoria that often, ultimately, tears families apart, ruins careers and ends in filth, misery or death.
This case provides a peek into how deep the tentacles of criminal networks reach into the heart of our flagship airport. It’s the same modus operandi used to facilitate state capture.
“OR Tambo International Airport is a major trafficking hub for all sorts of illicit commodities, particularly wildlife products,” noted a report this year by Global Initiative.
It cited two incidents of trafficking at the airport, one involving paying bribes to customs officers to allow marked bags of dried abalone to pass through a scanner undetected onto a flight to Hong Kong. The bribes allegedly involved were about R1,500 per bag.
“This is an exceptionally small amount of money to be taking the risk of passing illegal goods through a scanner and onto a plane. It suggests it is a regular occurrence,” noted an investigator.
Abalone and drug smuggling are intertwined in the underworld.
It is with this in mind that we see a glimmer of hope in the latest takedown.
The drug mules are small fish. To curb the scourge of drug abuse in our country we need to put the smugglers “enablers”, and the bigger fish, behind bars too.
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