Shanela week: 18 488 arrests, a R110m mandrax lab and six extradited to the US

South African Police Service units arrested 18 488 people across the country in the week between 7 and 13 September, including 2 684 suspects wanted in connection with serious and violent crimes, according to figures SAPS released as part of its latest Operation Shanela update. As CapeTown ETC reported on 14 September, the week’s enforcement also produced large seizures of drugs, firearms, ammunition, stolen vehicles and contraband.

The operation is a standing national policing programme that concentrates officers from SAPS, metro police and other law enforcement agencies on drug trafficking networks, illegal firearms and suspects linked to violent and organised crime.

The single largest drug find of the week was in Erasmia, Pretoria, where police dismantled a mandrax laboratory said to be capable of producing up to 800 000 tablets a day. Two Mozambican nationals were arrested and drugs valued at R110 million were seized.

In the Western Cape, officers stopped a vehicle on the N1 at Beaufort West and recovered 57 000 mandrax tablets and 5kg of cocaine, valued at R5.8 million. In a separate operation in Kraaifontein, a Volvo truck carrying mandrax valued at R2 million was intercepted and a Zimbabwean national was arrested. At OR Tambo International Airport, police seized cocaine worth R800 000 from a suspected drug mule travelling to Hong Kong.

Nationally, 3 385 suspects were arrested for possession of drugs and 318 for alleged drug dealing.

Firearms remained a second focus. SAPS and other agencies confiscated 148 unlicensed firearms and 2 095 rounds of ammunition, alongside 47 hijacked or stolen vehicles. More than R10 million worth of contraband was seized, including counterfeit goods valued at more than R9 million in Marabastad, Pretoria.

On 11 September, 1 787 firearms and firearm parts were destroyed as part of the African Union’s Silencing the Guns initiative.

The week’s arrests spanned a wide range of alleged offences. They included 144 suspects arrested for murder, 165 for attempted murder, 164 for rape, 94 for illegal possession of firearms, 23 for human trafficking, 70 for armed robbery, 1 559 for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, 1 003 for common assault, 751 for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, 1 870 for illegal migration and 625 for possession of dangerous weapons.

A separate operation involving Cape Town gave the week an international dimension. Six alleged members of the Black Axe network, arrested in South Africa in 2021, were extradited to the United States on 11 September. They face charges of wire fraud and money laundering in the US over allegations that more than 100 women were defrauded of approximately R100 million through online romance scams. The suspects were handed over to the FBI and the US Secret Service at Cape Town International Airport.

The extradition followed a legal process that had been running for years, and it required South African courts and the Department of Justice to sign off on the handover. The six are accused, not convicted, and the charges against them will be tested in US courts.

For ordinary South Africans, the numbers in the Shanela update are a measure of enforcement activity rather than of crime levels. An arrest is the start of a case, not the end of one, and the 18 488 total includes people picked up on warrants, on suspicion and on minor charges as well as those held for serious offences. What the figures do show is the scale of the state’s weekly operational footprint, and the volume of drugs and guns removed from circulation in seven days.

The 148 unlicensed firearms seized in a single week is a reminder of how many illegal guns remain in circulation despite years of amnesty programmes and destruction events. The 1 787 firearms and parts destroyed on 11 September are the visible end of that pipeline.

The six extraditions are the most consequential legal development in the week’s policing. South Africa has faced criticism in the past for slow progress on international organised crime cases, and the handover of suspects to US authorities shows the mutual legal assistance and extradition machinery working, even if it took years to reach that point.

SAPS has not said how many of the 18 488 arrested will face prosecution, how many have already appeared in court, or how many were released without charge. Those are the figures that would show what the operation achieved beyond the arrest count, and they are not in the update.

Source: CapeTown ETC, Operation Shanela: 18 488 suspects arrested in one week