Three Sydney dockworkers have been charged over a cocaine cargo value greater than $100 million that was discovered hidden behind a false wall in a transport container.
Officers stated they’d been investigating a felony syndicate believed to be working with “trusted insiders” at Sydney ports to import business portions of unlawful medication into Australia.
They stated they’d acquired intelligence {that a} group was planning to take away illicit medication from an imported transport container whereas it was saved on the Sydney waterfront.
On Sunday, a 25-year-old man was arrested whereas exiting the transport container, whose reliable cargo had already been unloaded. Police stated they discovered a crowbar, an angle grinder, ear safety, moveable lights and different instruments inside that they alleged the person was utilizing to chop via a false wall behind the transport container.
Behind the wall have been 506 blocks of cocaine weighing 1 kilo (2.2 kilos) every, for a complete of greater than 1,115 kilos. The cargo had a avenue worth of greater than 164 Australian {dollars} ($106 million), the Australian Federal Police (AFP) stated Tuesday in a joint information launch with the New South Wales Police Drive.
The 25-year-old man, together with two others ages 38 and 42, appeared in a New South Wales courtroom on Monday, with solely the 42-year-old being launched on bail.
If convicted, the three males might face life in jail. They’re subsequent anticipated to look in courtroom on Oct. 29.
Although the transport container got here from Europe, police stated they have been nonetheless investigating the origin of the cocaine. Searches of two of the boys’s houses discovered 330,000 Australian {dollars} (about $215,000) in money suspected of being proceeds from crime.
“To anybody lured in by the false promise of riches from drug importations — these offenses carry the potential of life in jail,” AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Fogarty stated.
The investigation was carried out by the Multi Company Strike Staff, a collaboration between Australian regulation enforcement businesses that goals to “examine and goal trusted insiders helping transnational critical organized crime syndicates.”
There have been a sequence of current drug busts in Australia, together with late final yr when police seized a report 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 individuals in raids after the suspects’ boat broke down off the coast of Queensland.
In 2022, police additionally discovered 2 U.S. tons of methamphetamine hidden in marble tiles shipped from the Center East to Sydney in what they stated was the largest-ever seizure of the illicit drug within the nation.
