Three Sydney docks have been charged for a cocaine sending for a value of more than $ 100 million that was hidden behind a false wall in a shipping container.
The authorities said they had been investigating a criminal union that is believed to be working with “privileged information” in Sydney Ports to import commercial amounts of illegal drugs in Australia.
They said they had received intelligence that a group planned to eliminate illicit medications from an imported shipping container while stored in the Sydney coast.
On Sunday, a 25 -year -old man was arrested while leaving the shipping container, whose legitimate load had already been discharged. Police said they found a lever, an angular grinder, ear protection, portable lights and other tools inside that alleged that the man was using to cut a false wall on the back of the shipping container.
Behind the wall there were 506 blocks of cocaine that weighed 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) each, for a total of more than 1,115 pounds. The shipment had a value of the street of more than 164 Australian dollars ($ 106 million), the Federal Police of Australia (AFP) said on Tuesday in a joint press release with the New Wales of the South Police force.
The 25 -year -old man, along with two others of 38 and 42, appeared in a court of New South Wales on Monday, and only the 42 -year -old man was released on bail.
If it is convicted, the three men could face life imprisonment. Then they are expected to appear before the Court on October 29.
Although the shipping container came from Europe, the police said they were still investigating the origin of cocaine. Searches for two of the men’s houses found 330,000 Australian dollars (around $ 215,000) in cash suspected of being crime earnings.
“For anyone attracted to the false promise of drug imports riches, these crimes have the potential of life in jail,” said AFP detective superintendent, Peter Fogarty.
The investigation was carried out by the multi -agencing strike team, a collaboration between the agencies of application of the Australian law that aims to “investigate and address the reliable experts that help the unions of organized crimes seriously transnational.”
There have been a series of recent drug busts in Australia, including at the end of last year, when the police took a record of 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspected boat broke on the coast of Queensland.
In 2022, the police also found 2 American tons of methamphetamine hidden in marble tiles sent from the Middle East to Sydney in what they said it was the largest seizure of the country’s illicit drug.
