A fisherman on Sydney’s northern beaches is one of several members of the public to discover packages containing 124kg of cocaine that have washed up on the New South Wales coast, sparking a police investigation.
NSW police on Wednesday confirmed its state crime command were investigating after the packages were discovered on beaches between Sydney and Newcastle from Friday. The initial barnacle-encrusted discoveries sparked a warning against removing or opening any more that were discovered.
A member of the public found the first large package, at Magenta on the state’s Central Coast, at about 8pm on Friday 22 December. Police seized the item, which they allege contained 39 sealed packages inside, suspected to be approximately 39kg of cocaine.
On Sunday 24 December, another seven individually wrapped packages were found by members of the public at Magenta beach and Blacksmiths beach in Lake Macquarie, the Central Coast’s Avoca and Pelican beaches and at Pantaloon Bay, and at Manly’s North Steyne beach.
Those packages were believed to contain a further 7kg of cocaine, police said.
They said further packages had been discovered this week, including by a fisherman on Tuesday morning at the Barrenjoey Headland off Sydney’s northern beaches, who found a blue barrel containing 39 individually wrapped 1kg bricks of cocaine.
Later that day, another member of the public found a suspicious package containing approximately 39 individually sealed packages, which were believed to be approximately 39kg of cocaine, at Newcastle’s ocean baths.
In each case, local police seized the packages to undergo further forensic examination.
Detectives were working closely with local officers, the air wing and water police, as well as the Australian Border Force and Surf Life Saving NSW, to seize any outstanding packages and determine their origin, police said.
Det Ch Supt Jason Weinstein, the director of state crime command, thanked the public for reporting the packages to police.
“We thank those who have heeded the warning to report any suspicious packages to police as we get to the bottom of this matter and we remind people that being in possession of a prohibited drug is a criminal offence,” he said.
“Detectives and specialist police are currently combing beaches and coastlines for any outstanding packages and working behind the scenes to make sure we find and hold accountable those responsible.”
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