Police have intercepted one of Queensland’s largest cocaine imports, seizing more than $160m worth of the illicit substance.
The Australian federal police (AFP) busted 500kg of cocaine from a mother-daughter ship operation, intercepting three men at the Boyne Island boat ramp late on Sunday night after they allegedly travelled to an offshore cargo ship to collect the cocaine in an 8.2 metre fishing boat.
The AFP said it found 15 black and yellow bags holding 32 1kg blocks of a powdered substance that tested positive for cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $162m.
The men, aged 27, 45 and 66, were known to police and monitored by the AFP when they drove from NSW to Gladstone, in central Queensland, in April. They have been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.
“It was a very large seizure, one of the largest in Queensland,” AFP Cmdr John Tanti told reporters.
“The alleged attempt to collect cocaine from the ocean shows the extreme lengths criminals will go to in order to attempt to bring illicit drugs into Australia.”
Investigations into the origin of the drugs are ongoing, with AFP asserting the amount had “potential to facilitate more than two million individual street deals and cause tens of millions of dollars in harm to the Australian community”.
The port in Gladstone is closely monitored, as large-scale imports enter frequently, Australian Border Force Cmdr Jim Ley said, but locating the eight-metre fishing boat was a “massive effort”.
“That is a testament to the combined capabilities of Australian law enforcement.”
The three men will face Gladstone magistrates court on 19 July, with the charge carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison.
It comes just weeks after two other unrelated charges over cocaine importation plots into Queensland – a Victorian man charged over alleged involvement in a criminal syndicate that imported 289kg of cocaine, and a Queensland man charged after being accused of trying to import two tonnes of cocaine over the past year.
It also follows a Brisbane man being charged over a botched international drug trafficking plot to import 900kg of cocaine into Australia, after bricks of drugs washed up on New South Wales beaches.
– With AAP
