Ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine, the chemicals used to make tik, are being smuggled into South Africa via sea and air from China in exchange for poached perlemoen.
The chemicals are flown into neighbouring countries and brought into the country along the same routes used by Umkhonto we Sizwe during the armed struggle.
And the legal import of the chemicals, from the Czech Republic and India, soared in recent years as warehouse workers were being bribed to steal the drug.
Tik manufactures were forging their details to allow them to buy the chemicals. In one instance, 50kg was stolen.
But recently the Czechs stopped producing ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine and India has halved the quantity sold to South Africa.
The police's organised crime narcotics desk are cagey about the link between Chinese Triads and Western Cape gangsters who trade poached perlemoen for ephedrine.
"It is not unlikely that different criminal groups co-operate to some degree to further their goals, any link between gangsters and Chinese Triads cannot be denied. A seller would always need a buyer, if illicit drugs are the products involved."
Organised crime narcotics desk Superintendent Jan Rehder said that even though they are not aware of incidents involving such a partnership "the fact that abalone (perlemoen) ends up in the Far East must indicate their involvement".
The head of the forensic science and chemical laboratory, Commander Jaco Westraat, says clothing soaked in ephedrine is one of the most common ways of bringing the chemical on ships into Durban port.
The precursor is also hidden in electronics and false compartments.
From the port, the chemicals are transported via road to Pretoria where a number of clandestine labs are operating. Once the drug is manufactured, the tik is taken to Cape Town, its final destination.
The highly addictive drug is sold in straws to children as young as 11. The tik scourge has seen Cape Town rehabilitation facilities battling to cope as addicts seek help.
The police assault on tik and other drugs, including methcathinone, which is similar to tik, has resulted in 286 illegal labs being shut down across the country since 1987.
According to police statistics, 65 labs were dismantled in 2003, 43 in 2004, 44 in 2005 and 46 last year.
Westraat says the ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine are also being smuggled over the border from neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
In the past three years Westraat has seen a huge increase in the amount of drugs they are analysing - "from about 800 three years ago to 1 500 busts now," he said.
He has also seen an increase in the illegal import of blackmarket Viagra, which he says is being used in conjunction with tik.
The police's chemical monitoring programme keeps track of the legal imports of ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine.
In 2002, 2 600kg were imported, three years later the imports had sky-rocketed to 12 220kg.
Rehder says warehouses are being robbed, workers are bribed to siphon off little quantities and tik manufactures are forging particulars to enable them to buy the products legally.
Cape Town mayor and DA national leader Helen Zille has called on the Medicine's Control Council to give pseudo-ephedrine a schedule five status. This would then make the chemical more difficult to come by. Ephedrine already has a schedule five status.
Professor Peter Eagles of the Medicine's Control Council says an MCC task team has been urged to speed up their investigation into rescheduling the substance.
But Eagles says it will make the medication expensive to obtain, as patients would need a doctor's script. He also questioned whether scheduling would cut off supplies of the drug.
Westraat is worried that the country is not keeping pace with the international scene. Some 33 million people worldwide are addicted to tik and "one-pot labs" are on the increase internationally.
"Instead of a big lab there would be 10 smaller labs, so that when the police close down one lab it does not matter as much to the drug manufacturers," he said.
Because ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine are found in a range of over-the-counter medication, Westraat says it is possible that people will buy over the counter products to manufacture the drug.
"The drug is relatively easy to make if you know what you are doing," Westraat said.
He had dealt with cases where just making a few kilograms of the drug a week results in profits of hundreds of thousands of rands a month.