Police seize record 2.3 tons of cocaine from fishing boat that broke down off coast of Australia
Australian police seized a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine and arrested 13 people in a raid after the suspect’s boat broke down off the Queensland coast, authorities said on Monday.
Federal police said in a report that the drugs were sold for A$760 million ($494 million), equivalent to 11.7 million street transactions in the country of 28 million people. statement.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane the drugs were being shipped from an unidentified South American country.
Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said the arrests on Saturday and Sunday followed a month-long investigation following a tip-off that the Comancheros motorcycle gang was orchestrating a multi-ton smuggling operation. police release Photos and videos The scene of the operation shows the cabin of a fishing boat carrying huge packages of suspected drugs.
Joe Nossel/AP
Jay said smugglers had twice tried to transport drugs to Australia by sea from a mother ship floating hundreds of miles offshore. He said their first boat broke down and the second sank on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided the fishing boat and seized the drugs.
Jay said the mothership was in international waters and no arrests were made.
Jay said authorities had previously seized more than a tonne of cocaine but the weekend’s seizure was the largest ever recorded in Australia.
The men accused of conspiring to import drugs by sea into Australia will appear in various courts on Monday. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Some people were arrested on the boat while others were waiting ashore to collect the cocaine, police said. They said two of them were under 18 and both were Australian citizens.
“Australia is a very attractive market for organized crime groups to transport drugs such as cocaine,” Jay said.
The seizure is the latest in a series of recent large-scale drug busts around the world. On Wednesday, the Colombian navy announced that authorities from dozens of countries had seized more than 225 tons of cocaine during a massive six-week operation in which they discovered New Pacific trafficking routes From South America to Australia. Officials said they also seized “increasingly sophisticated” drug-laden semi-submersibles – better known as “Narcotics Submarine” –Can travel 10,000 miles without refueling.
Last week, Belgian authorities said they had seized Nearly five tons of cocaine The items were hidden in containers at the port of Antwerp as part of a cross-border investigation into drug gangs.
Just days ago, Spanish police said they had seized 13 tons of cocaine – the country’s largest drug haul. Largest drug shipment ever — and arrested one person.
