drug syndicates

The rip-on-rip-off method of drug trafficking, where narcotics are concealed inside legitimate cargo consignments and containers are tampered with en route, requires infiltration by corrupt law enforcement to succeed.

“narcotics are frequently concealed in so-called legitimate cargo consignments . This concealment takes place in the country of origin where those containers are packed . ... because of the issue that these containers move a lot at sea , there is a space left between the door of the container and the body parts itself ... The Aeroton case , for example , it was a container containing body parts for Scania trucks ... this drug consignment is then placed in that cavity . Duplicate seals are then manufactured and the container is sealed again ... this container is then placed on a vessel ... Then , as was indicated , this drug syndicates then have to employ some or other person within law enforcement ... so that they can try and stop this container from going its normal route to allow them to do the other rip-off ...”

Corrupt officials within customs, police, SARS or similar agencies remove drug consignments from containers at bond yards through the rip-on-rip-off method and then redistribute the drugs to syndicates for further distribution.

“In the case of the illicit side and the criminal element within the law enforcement environment , they would remove at the bond yard , they would remove by ripping off this drug consignment , they would remove it and they would seal it again to say that we found nothing and they then would distribute it to the drug syndicates for further distribution .”

The successful execution of the rip-on-rip-off drug trafficking method depends on the involvement of corrupt officials within law enforcement.

“in my humble opinion , I do not think these syndicates would be able to deal with the rip-on-rip-off method if corrupt officials are not involved .”