From bust to heist — Hawks officer says cops ‘intentionally bungled’ R200m cocaine haul investigation

In June 2021, a R200m cocaine consignment linked to transnational traffickers was intercepted in KwaZulu-Natal. Months later, it was stolen from an unprotected Hawks building. The Madlanga Commission has now heard how cops may have intentionally crafted this chain of events.

A R200-million cocaine consignment seized by police was stored in a Hawks building in KwaZulu-Natal, where it was stolen months later.

The building had no working alarm system and had previously been the repeated target of thieves.

This testimony on Tuesday, 5 May 2026 at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry by Major General Hendrik Flynn, who heads the Serious Organised Crime Investigation component of the Hawks, included that the Hawks building also lacked private security because a contract for these services had not been renewed.

The drug consignment was intercepted in June 2021 and was stolen in November of that year. Daily Maverick has reported that this was widely believed to be an inside job.

Flynn’s testimony corroborates that theory.

‘By design, not coincidence’

He believes the events, from the way the crime scene was handled when the cocaine was first discovered to when it was stolen, did not simply unfold by chance.

Flynn told the Madlanga Commission: “I’m of the view it’s no coincidence and that the sequence of events is indeed […] by design, if I can perhaps word it as such.”

It was his first day on the witness stand at the commission investigating accusations that a drug cartel has infiltrated the country’s criminal justice sector, politics and private security.

Some of Flynn’s lengthy testimony on Tuesday focused on the now-controversial cocaine interception in Isipingo, KwaZulu-Natal, on 22 June 2021.

Daily Maverick previously reported that instead of being stored at an official forensic science laboratory, as it should have been, the consignment was instead kept at the Hawks’ offices in Port Shepstone.

Flynn’s testimony has created the impression that police officers mishandled the cocaine from the start.

At one point on Tuesday, even the commission’s chairperson, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, listed all the alleged bungling by the police and asked Flynn if he felt the saga had been “a comedy of errors”.

Flynn responded that he thought it was “by design”.

Transnational investigation

He explained that intelligence had been received on 21 June 2021 about a cocaine consignment – that 27kg of the drug was concealed in a container at an Isipingo depot.

Two officers, whom Flynn named as Lieutenant Colonel Gavin Jacobs and a Warrant Officer Mpangase, were told about this.

The following day, four police officers went to the depot to search the identified container that, according to official documentation, contained animal bone meal from a supplier in Brazil.

(Flynn testified that Brazil was a key trafficking conduit, with its Port of Santos repeatedly used as a point of origin. Daily Maverick has reported extensively on this.)

When the container was opened, the officers discovered 27 bags of cocaine, and not 27kg as the intelligence tip-off had suggested.

Inside the bags were bricks of cocaine weighing 541kg, worth between R200-million and R250-million.

The bricks had branding on them, which Flynn explained indicated who originally owned the cocaine.

Some of the bricks showed the TikTok logo, while others had the Jaguar brand.

Flynn would not go into detail about who or which cartels these brands reflected, explaining that this formed part of a bigger transnational investigation.

Daily Maverick, meanwhile, has reported that the image of a jaguar had been used on cocaine packages by a now-jailed Sinaloa Cartel member from Mexico to show his ownership.

‘You can’t shift a crime scene’

Flynn, in a statement prepared for the Madlanga Commission, said: “According to the officers at the scene, photographs of the seizure were taken […]

“The officers decided to convey the suspected cocaine to the Isipingo Police Station for a detailed count. According to the officers, the crime scene was becoming busy with warehouse staff.”

But Flynn later pointed out that “you can’t just shift a crime scene”.

He said the area at the depot was a “controlled environment” and should have been cordoned off.

Flynn, responding to a question from Madlanaga about a controlled environment, explained that “right from inception, when we start with training at the college, we get exposure on how to deal with a crime scene”.

He said that regardless of the type of crime, the principles in dealing with these scenes remained the same.

Flynn said all the officers who dealt with the Isipingo cocaine scene were senior and that “there was no need for things to go wrong”.

The cocaine should have been taken to the Isipingo police station to be kept there before it was moved to a Forensic Science Laboratory, in line with policing instructions, but this did not happen.

According to Flynn, the consignment should have been moved to a laboratory “immediately, but no later than seven working days in exceptional circumstances”.

The laboratory in question had apparently told a police officer that it had no space available to keep the consignment, but Flynn found this doubtful because 700kg of cocaine had been stored there after it was intercepted following the Isipingo bust.

He was of the view that “it was never the intention to take the whole batch of [cocaine] exhibits to the forensic lab”.

Flynn said solutions to concerns about the Isipingo station’s “capacity and risk profile” included that the cocaine could have been stored at one of four nearby police stations before being taken to the laboratory.

Instead, the cocaine was moved to the Hawks building in Port Shepstone.

No alarm, expired armed response

The cocaine exhibits were meant to have been sealed at the crime scene, but this happened only once the cocaine was transported and stored in the Hawks building in Port Shepstone.

Between 6 and 8 November 2021, over a weekend, the R200-million consignment was stolen from a strong room inside the building.

The thieves used a grinder to get into the room.

Flynn’s affidavit said it was not clear when exactly “the theft occurred because the alarm system that was fitted at the premises was not working properly”.

His affidavit said that, in addition, there were “no armed response services because the contract with the private security company was not renewed”.

The contract expired on 31 March 2021, which was roughly eight months before the cocaine was stolen.

Flynn added: “The alarm was also not maintained.”

He referred to an information note “by General Mosikili” (presumably Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili), saying it flagged “an attempted break-in” at the Port Shepstone premises in October 2021, just a few weeks before the cocaine was stolen.

There also appeared to have been six break-ins at the premises before June 2021.

Flynn is expected to testify more about this on Wednesday.

‘Someone sold us out’

KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major General Lesetja Senona testified earlier about the Port Shepstone burglary at the Madlanga Commission.

He had said that the thieves got into the Hawks’ offices via a next-door hardware store.

Senona said that the thieves cut open the door to the strong room containing the cocaine, and that this would have required special skills.

Senona distanced himself from the crime when testifying at the commission.

“Someone who knows this place and who knew these things were there, sold us out,” he said.

Senona knows organised crime accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, who certain police officers have alleged is part of the drug cartel that has infiltrated the criminal justice sector.

Earlier this year, Senona was identified as being among a group of senior South African Police Service and Ekurhuleni metro officials whom President Cyril Ramaphosa has recommended be investigated, based on what has emerged from the Madlanga Commission.

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who initially made the drug cartel infiltration accusations last year, has said it seems that the cocaine was stolen during a power outage.

He said it was believed the stolen drug consignment ended up in Johannesburg.

Mkhwanazi explained that the burglars stole some of the consignment, instead of delivering it to where it was ultimately meant to go.

He also alleged that this sparked “a majority of the murders” that followed in Johannesburg.

Among the killings he was apparently referring to was that of Oupa John Sefoka, better known as DJ Sumbody, who was fatally shot in November 2022. DM

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