Why heroin capsules have transformed Durban’s drug market.

In early 2020, a police operation targeting a drugs processing facility in Pinetown, a suburb of Durban, yielded a significant find: a machine for filling and processing pharmaceutical-style capsules. According to police, the machine was capable of processing up to 25 000 capsules per hour.¹

This was yet another sign of the trend for capsulized heroin that has been sweeping Durban in recent years, as explored in a previous issue of this Bulletin.² However, despite the advantages capsulization brings in terms of more efficient production and distribution, Durban (and its surrounding area) remains unique as the only region in South Africa where drug networks regularly distribute heroin using this method.

New GI-TOC fieldwork in and around the city has found that this step forward in the sophistication of the heroin market has had knock-on effects in terms of its profitability, local demand for heroin and on violence.

Figure 4 Heroin capsules are a unique feature of the drugs market in Durban. This map shows where significant heroin capsule seizures have been made in KwaZulu-Natal between 2017 and 2020. The inset map of Durban highlights which suburbs of the city are known as areas where capsules are sold.

Source: SAPS for heroin seizure data. Information on Durban collected during GI-TOC research in February and March 2021.

A machine used for processing heroin into capsules, seized in Pinetown, Durban, in early 2020.

Photo: Durban Metro Police

Buying capsules and machinery

According to police sources in Durban, empty capsules are generally imported from China and India to Durban. An officer with the Hawks, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Directorate for Priority Crime, said that ‘Type 4’ (14 millimetre) pharmaceutical capsules are generally used, although more recently other sizes have been seized, including Type 5 (11 millimetre) capsules.³ Attempts by SAPS and Durban Metro Police to monitor imports of empty capsules have been unsuccessful, because capsules could be destined for a range of legitimate products.

Both capsules and machinery are readily available to buy, and the capsules are cheap; a supplier in India quoted the GI-TOC a price of just US$1.30 for 1 000 Type 4 capsules. The machinery required to fill the capsules does present something of a barrier to entry for drug networks in terms of cost, but it is not exorbitantly priced. A machinery supplier in India told the GI-TOC a semi-automated capsule-filling unit costs around US$15 000, and could be operated by one person.⁴ However, the machine requires a three-phase electricity supply (415 volts),⁵ which may mean that drug networks would have to base their operations in industrial areas where such connections are available.

Once capsulized, the heroin can be easily distributed to users. Drug users do not ingest the capsule. The capsules pull apart easily and the heroin is generally smoked or injected.

These two samples show different ways of packaging heroin that are found in South Africa. The top image shows a sample photographed in Cape Town; the sample on the bottom, in Port Elizabeth. Heroin capsules are unique to Durban, and across the country simpler plastic packaging like these are more common.

Photos: Jason Eligh

The advantages of heroin capsules

The GI-TOC spoke to four Durban-based SAPS narcotics specialists, and all said heroin capsules were unique to Durban. GI-TOC research that has surveyed heroin markets across South Africa and the wider region found that capsules are an isolated phenomenon in the Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal.

Criminologist Monique Marks, a research professor at the Durban University of Technology who has a deep knowledge of drug use in the city, said that heroin-filled capsules first appeared in Durban in about 2017. The new method quickly became common: the GI-TOC’s analysis of heroin capsule seizures in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal show a significant rise in the number of capsules seized from 2019. Before capsules, brown heroin (mixed with bulking agents) was mainly sold in ‘straws’. ‘The shift to capsules is most likely due to these being easier to produce and to disguise it as conventional medication’, said Marks.⁶

Heroin capsules seized in Wentworth, Durban, one of the suburbs of the city where heroin capsules are widely sold. The colours suggest they are a particular type of capsule sold in the city, known as ‘Metro’, because they recall the colours of Durban metropolitan police cars.

Photo: Durban Metro Police

Police sources agreed with Marks’s theory about efficient production. Manufacturing capsules is considerably more efficient than making heroin loops or ‘twisters’ (with the drug bound in small plastic strips) or straws, which are manually filled and heat sealed. The amount contained in a capsule is the same as that of a straw or a loop, a Metro Police officer told the GI-TOC.

Capping heroin makes for more time-efficient packaging and provides for easier and more precise dose allocation, with the capping machine ensuring that the same measure of heroin is inserted in every capsule, which makes counting of doses and distribution to dealers easier. Suppliers or wholesalers can service dealers who have different size customer bases, effectively removing layers of middlemen from the distribution pyramid

Capping machines means that fewer people are involved in heroin processing and the potential for information leaks is reduced, making production more secure, a SAPS member told the GI-TOC. Police busts, especially in the case of Teddy Mafia, suggest drug kingpins stored capsules in houses in their turf or ‘gullies’, occupied by people on their payroll.⁷ Capsules may make it easier for drug kingpins to stash drugs with associates and keep track of merchandise.

The colour and markings of the capsules is also significant. A host of different coloured heroin capsules with a variety of markings and logos have been seized in Durban busts. An identifiable capsule brand allows networks to build up a kind of ‘brand recognition’.⁸ This helps networks reinforce control over drug sales on their turf and become associated with the quality of the heroin – an important distinguishing quality in an expanding market characterized by fierce competition. SAPS members said that some drug lords sourced heroin from the same wholesalers at times, but increasingly they sought to differentiate themselves from rivals.⁹

The case of the ‘Metro’ capsule – so called because the blue and white capsules matched Durban Metro Police vans – highlights the importance of product brand, quality and consistency in capturing, retaining and growing a market. ‘The addicts went wild for the blue and white cap when it first hit the streets,’ a SAPS officer told GI-TOC. SAPS members said the capsules were sought after until either the producer’s quality dropped or poorer-quality copies emerged.¹⁰ The SAPS officer said police noticed a marked response to the quality of the heroin capsules. ‘If the users don’t get a good hit they will drop a dealer.’

While it is difficult to definitively link specific capsule designs to individual suppliers, police interviewed for this story argued that the colour and appearance of capsules was a branding tactic used by competing drug kingpins.¹¹

The changing economies of the Durban heroin market

Marks said the emergence of heroin-based capsules in Durban had coincided with an increase in the availability of the drug. Like any other commodity, the greater the supply, the more the market adjusted in terms of price. Today, a heroin capsule retails in Durban for about R15 (US$1), whereas in 2015 the same quantity of heroin in a straw cost R35 (US$2.35).

‘There has been an increase in the demand for heroin because of the deepening social crisis,’ Marks said. ‘Brown heroin is a fairly cheap drug for a group that is increasing in size because of social and political drivers. Year on year there has been a decrease in the cost of heroin and an increase in usage.’

Capsules have made supplying this booming market easier. A 37-year-old heroin user in downtown Durban told the GI-TOC the capsules he used were mostly sold around Durban station or Albert Park, both in the central business district. ‘You pay R18 for a capsule on the street, but if you get to a wholesaler you can get that cap [one hit] for R7.’¹² He said he tried to get at least three hits a day which, according to Marks, is typical: she said most users needed about three to five hits a day.

SAPS officers told the GI-TOC that 1 kilogram of heroin is generally cut with 3 kilograms of additional substances that have a similar molecular weight, from baby powder to methamphetamines and even, recently in Durban, methaqualone. SAPS officers said that variation in the cut and content of the Durban capsules influenced profits dramatically.

A group of police members (SAPS and Metro Police) told the GI-TOC that 1 kilogram of heroin cut made about 25 000 Type 4 capsules, with a street value of about R300 000–R375 000 (US$20 000–US$25 000), but information from from the Hawks officer differed:

‘We are seeing more Type 5 capsules now,’ he told the GI-TOC. ‘They are smaller, containing between 0.03 milligram of heroin and 0.04 milligram of heroin. It is not always an accurate science. An importer buys 1 kilogram of heroin for around R120 000 to R150 000 [US$8 000–US$10 000]. He adds a number of bulking agents. Phenacetin [a pain medicine] is common. If your 1 kilogram makes approximately 40 000 capsules, each will sell at R12, or a total of R540 000 [US$36 000]. If he paid R150 000 for the heroin his profit is R390 000 [US$26 000], less other expenses.’

A Metro Police officer told the GI-TOC that one relatively low-level dealer in Wentworth arrested in March 2021 reported selling 2 000 capsules a day, seven days a week. Police say drug runners are paid R1 (US$0.67) for each capsule moved.

Volatility and violence

Three Durban Metro Police officers with specialist drug experience told the GI-TOC that more drugs were coming into Durban, fuelling violent competition. One said: ‘There are more importers now … It means more volume and more violence, especially since heroin capsules arrived on the scene.’¹³

Tattoos such as these are common among gangsters in Wentworth. As Durban’s heroin market has grown, violence between rival gangs for control of the drug turf has also increased.

Photo: Jon Ivins

A Metro Police officer said that heroin dealers in Wentworth, in south Durban, are engaged in a ‘race to the bottom’ price war, with capsules selling for as low as R8 (US$0.53).¹⁴ These prices brought more customers, but also more violence: ‘You see people lining up here every day,’ the officer said. ‘People come from all over because it is cheaper. In Wentworth the competing dealers live across the road from one another. Violence is high because of turf and they are easily caught up in feuds and revenge attacks.’ Ultimately, the officer said, ‘the guys in Wentworth are killing each other over price’.¹⁵

Since 2018 there have been several high-profile drug- related murders in Durban, including in Wentworth,¹⁶ Overport¹⁷ and Umhlanga.¹⁸ The January 2021 killing of the notorious underworld figure Yaganathan Pillay, otherwise known as ‘Teddy Mafia’, made headlines after his killers were beheaded and their bodies set on fire by a mob, as reported in issue 15 of this Bulletin.¹⁹ In the year preceding Teddy Mafia’s murder there were a string of hits targeting his family and suspected members of his network.²⁰ While some police members said Teddy Mafia was the original producer of heroin capsules in Durban and had manufacturing labs, others maintain he was, in fact, a tier below a producer. ‘There are at least 20 Teddys in town [in a similar league in terms of trade volume]’, a SAPS officer said.²¹

The violent competition continues. On 8 March 2021, a 52-year-old man was shot dead on Taurus Street, where Teddy Mafia lived.²² A SAPS officer told the GI-TOC: ‘Whoever has taken over from Teddy whacked that guy because he was trying to trade on their turf.’ The shooting took place after the 23 February arrest of Teddy Mafia’s nephew, Govin Govender, in a house less than 500 metres from Mafia’s home, during which police seized 10 700 heroin capsules in two colour designs (orange and white, and pink and clear), according to an internal police report received by the GI-TOC.

While the efficient production of heroin capsules may have increased profits for drugs networks, the signs of market volatility paint a more complicated picture. It appears that while the drug trade in Durban may have found a more streamlined way of selling heroin, such gains have been counterbalanced by violent competition as more actors seek to take advantage of the growing market for heroin. It remains to be seen whether the innovation of Durban’s heroin- capsule trade is adopted elsewhere in South Africa, and whether such adoption will bring similar levels of criminal disruption.

Notes