Two men have been charged after police found 139 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of luxury buses.
The Australian Border Force investigation began in January after detectives were notified of 13 luxury buses on board an international cargo ship destined for Adelaide, via Perth.
Almost $45 million worth of cocaine was found hidden inside four of the buses, South Australia's second-largest cocaine bust in history.
Police tracked the buses as they were shipped to Adelaide and offloaded to a carpark at Mansfield Park, in Adelaide's northwestern suburbs.
Two Victorian men, aged 19 and 22, allegedly broke into the carpark on Saturday and collected the cocaine from the buses before returning to a hotel room in Port Adelaide, where police were waiting to arrest them.
They were charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of cocaine, were refused bail and face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.
Police said while the boat arrived from Singapore but the cocaine could have been added at any time.
Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Melinda Adam said the bust prevented a potential 695,000 individual street deals from hitting the streets and warned international criminal drug groups that the AFP would be tracking them.
"We will continue to make Australia a hostile environment for criminals both onshore and offshore," she said in Adelaide on Monday.
"Make no mistake if you engage in this illegal activity we will be watching and we will take every action necessary."
The police investigation is ongoing and both men are due to face Port Adelaide Magistrates court on Monday.
