[imagesource: Facebook / South African Police Service]

It’s a long journey from South America to the Cape coast.

At least the drug cartels know that once cocaine touches down on our shores, there will no shortage of takers.

A sizeable bust on a fishing vessel off the coast of Saldanha last year – some estimates put the value of the seized cocaine at upwards of R580 million – is the starting point for Cape of Cocaine, a podcast from TimesLIVE.

The basics are worth a quick revisit:

On March 1 2021 the Windward, a Bulgarian mafia cocaine ship, was three days behind schedule docking at Saldanha Bay harbour on SA’s west coast.

Bulgarian cocaine fleet manager Asen Ivanov and his Bulgarian associates were waiting, probably worried their Myanmar crew had become lost in thick fog or rough seas.

Unbeknown to him, he had much bigger problems because watching the mafia’s every move was Lt-Col Johan Smit and members of the Western Cape police’s narcotics unit.

Smit and his unit found drugs that had been clearly branded with the words ‘King Coca’ which sent reporters down a wormhole.

We’ll stick to the podcast and have a quick look at a teaser of what’s covered:

Episode two takes a closer look at a fleet of “ghost ships” that traffic cocaine from South America to destinations around the globe.

Again, via TimesLIVE:

They are invisible to satellites and tracking systems and make lonely voyages undetected, sometimes across rough seas.

The Atlantic Warrior is one of them. She belongs to the Bulgarian Mafia and trafficked cocaine from Brazil to Saldanha Bay off the South African West Coast.

That boat is now missing after being outed as a vessel involved in drug trafficking.

The process is broken down step-by-step below:

Image: TimesLIVE

Following last year’s Saldanha bust, law enforcement has confiscated three ships belonging to the syndicate.

However, there are others out there ensuring that business continues as usual.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]