{"id":358675,"date":"2026-08-01T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/358675\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:40:15","slug":"major-cocaine-bust-r28-million-shipment-from-brazil-intercepted-at-or-tambo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/358675\/","title":{"rendered":"Major cocaine bust: R28 million shipment from Brazil intercepted at OR Tambo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gauteng police have<a href=\"https:\/\/iol.co.za\/the-star\/2026-03-30-five-south-african-women-caught-smuggling-r5-million-worth-of-drugs-at-or-tambo\/?ref=residentportal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> seized 95 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of R28 million<\/a> after intercepting a cargo shipment that arrived from Brazil at OR Tambo International Airport.<\/p>\n<p>The seizure was made on Friday, 31 July 2026, during an intelligence-driven operation involving the South African Police Service (SAPS), Customs officials and Menzies Aviation personnel.<\/p>\n<p>SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the operation was launched after the Crime Intelligence Border Integrity Unit received information about a suspected drug consignment destined for South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The intelligence was acted upon by members of the SAPS Visible Policing Unit stationed at OR Tambo International Airport, working alongside Customs officials and operational staff from Menzies Aviation.<\/p>\n<p>Mathe said the cargo arrived on a flight from S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, and was intercepted shortly after landing at about 1pm. A search of the shipment led to the discovery and seizure of 95kg of cocaine in the airport&#8217;s cargo section.<\/p>\n<p>No arrests have been made.<\/p>\n<p>She added that investigations are continuing to identify those responsible for the attempted smuggling operation and to trace the intended recipients of the drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Mathe said the seizure demonstrates the value of intelligence-led operations and cooperation between law enforcement agencies in combating transnational organised crime.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The SAPS remains committed to disrupting organised criminal networks involved in the illicit drug trade and will continue working with its law enforcement partners to ensure that South Africa&#8217;s borders and ports of entry are protected from criminal exploitation,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/iol.co.za\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"fb8892959e9593979a9593979ad5969a8892979e979abb929497d59894d5819a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>IOL News\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Get your news on the go. Download the latest IOL App for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.iol.news.prod&amp;hl=en_ZA&amp;pli=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Android<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/za\/app\/iol-news\/id479535200\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IOS<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gauteng police have seized 95 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of R28 million after intercepting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[1695,99778,4168,172316,22548,172317,172321,12226,1696,172319,89128,4090,172322,1179,83808,172320,54729,57469,131,47955,1689,172318],"class_list":["post-358675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-android","tag-athlenda-mathe","tag-brazil","tag-cargo-shipment","tag-cocaine","tag-cocaine-shipment","tag-crime-intelligence-border-integrity-unit","tag-customs","tag-ios","tag-menzies-aviation","tag-operation","tag-or-tambo-international-airport","tag-or-tambo-international-airport-gauteng","tag-police","tag-sao-paulo","tag-saps-visible-policing-unit","tag-shipment","tag-sinenhlanhla-masilelaiol-co-za","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-police","tag-south-african-police-service","tag-street-value"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117020539328162112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}