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The containers had false floors that provided access to the
cocaine, which police estimate had a street value of 816 million
Australian dollars ($572 million). Two Sydney residents, men
aged 21 and 25, were arrested at the property and charged with
possessing a commercial quantity of an illicit drug. They face
potential sentences of life in prison.
Australia’s previous record cocaine haul was 2.34 metric tons
(2.58 tons) seized in 2024 from a fishing boat near K’gari,
formerly known as Fraser Island, off the Queensland state coast.
Police said the cocaine found in Sydney, the capital of New
South Wales state and Australia's most populous city, landed by
boat at Midge Point in the sparsely-populated Queensland
tropics. They allege that a Sydney organized crime group
transported the drug by road to the city, a distance of 1,800
kilometers (1,100 miles), police said.
Police added that they suspect the shipment was landed from the
same mother ship as 178 kilograms (392 pounds) of cocaine
previously seized in Queensland. Six people have been charged
over that cocaine and 142 kilograms (313 pounds) of
methamphetamine that was also found in the investigation.
They suspect the mother ship to be MV Wealth, a Belize-flagged
cargo ship that has been seized by authorities in Solomon
Islands on suspicion of involvement in transitional organized
crime.
The Solomons are 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of
Queensland.
Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said organized
crime groups were increasingly targeting Queensland’s
13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) coastline to smuggle drugs.
Australians pay some of the world’s highest prices for cocaine,
which makes Australia a lucrative market for drug traffickers.
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