Australian Police Bust Smuggling Boat With $400M in Cocaine
Police in New South Wales, Australia have arrested five people in connection with a one-tonne shipment of cocaine seized from a boat off the province's central coast.
The police were tipped off about a possible inbound shipment of drugs when they received word of a large cash purchase of a 13-meter motor cruiser from a seller near Sydney. In Australia, cash buys of ocean-capable pleasure boats are sometimes a signal of an imminent ship-to-ship narcotics importation attempt.
The provincial police and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) began gathering information on the people behind the purchase, and decided to track their movements. The authorities monitored the boat's passage northbound from Sydney via Nelson Bay and Port Macquarie; on Friday, the boat's operators headed back towards shore near South West Rocks, midway between Brisbane and Sydney. Officers swooped in with a police vessel at about 0930 Friday morning and seized the boat, arresting two men aged 24 and 26 who were operating it.
Courtesy AFP
According to the police, the boat contained 1,110 bricks of cocaine weighing a combined 1.039 tonnes. In Australia's ultra-lucrative cocaine market, the white powder is worth nearly four times its weight in gold - meaning this shipment was valued at about US$400 million (street value).
The police also stopped two vehicles and arrested three people on shore near the South West Rocks area. These three individuals have been charged with supplying commercial quantities of a prohibited drug and participating in a criminal group, and are being held without bail.
Courtesy AFP
Follow-up searches at properties in Newcastle and Catherine Hill Bay resulted in seizures of documents, cash and electronic devices. The investigation into the suspects and their associates continues.
"Australia’s vast coastline is attractive to organized crime groups, who attempt to exploit this by trying to import drugs using boats. The bad news for them is the AFP will continue to work together with our partners to target organized crime syndicates," said AFP assistant commissioner Stephen Dametto in a statement. "Importation of drugs via the sea are inherently dangerous, and criminals using this smuggling method risk both their freedom and their lives."