Australia's Biggest Cocaine Seizure: Nearly Three Tonnes Found Buried Under Sydney Property
Australian federal police have seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine, the largest in the country's history, from secret bunkers on a property in western Sydney. Two men have been arrested and charged.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) have made the largest cocaine seizure in the nation's history, uncovering 2.7 tonnes of the drug buried in clandestine bunkers on a semi-rural property in Londonderry, on Sydney's western outskirts.
Police allege the cocaine was found in plastic tubs inside underground bunkers concealed beneath three shipping containers on the property. The estimated street value of the drugs is about A$816 million, equivalent to roughly 3 million individual street-level deals.
Two men, aged 21 and 25, have been arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border-controlled drugs. They appeared before a New South Wales local court on Saturday and were remanded in custody. They are next expected to appear before Penrith local court on 13 August.
The seizure was part of Operation Minjiang, a joint investigation involving the AFP, Queensland Police, the Australian Border Force, and other agencies. The operation began after 40 kilograms of cocaine was allegedly found in the water off a boat ramp at Midge Point on the Whitsunday Coast in north Queensland.
Police believe the cocaine was imported into Australia near Midge Point and then transported to Sydney at the behest of a Sydney-based organized crime group. A suspected mother vessel, the MV Wealth, believed to be involved in the drug importation enterprise, has been detained in the Solomon Islands.
