Australian police have seized a record 2,3 tonnes of cocaine and arrested 13 people during raids after the suspects' boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, authorities there said.
The Australian Federal Police explains that the drug had a sales value of 760 million Australian dollars (494 million US dollars) and that, if it had reached the street, 11,7 million doses would have been sold.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the drugs were transported from an unidentified South American country.
"The arrests were made last weekend, following a month-long investigation that was launched based on a tip-off that the Komacheros motorcycle gang was planning a multi-ton drug smuggling operation," Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.
Smugglers tried twice to smuggle the drugs into Australia by sea, from a ship hundreds of miles offshore, Jay said, adding that the first ship broke down and the second capsized on Saturday, leaving the suspects at sea for several hours while police she didn't raid a fishing boat and seize drugs.
The first ship, which was damaged, was not seized because it remained in international waters.
The AP commander said that the local authorities had previously seized more than a ton of cocaine, but that the amount seized on Saturday and Sunday was the largest ever recorded in Australia.
Those arrested are charged with conspiracy to import drugs into Australia by sea. The maximum penalty for that charge is life in prison.
The police said that some were arrested on the ship, while others were waiting on the shore to pick up the cocaine.
Two of the suspects are minors, and all are Australian citizens.
"Australia is a very attractive market for organized crime groups that ship drugs like cocaine," Jay said.
This seizure represents the latest in a series of mass actions against drugs around the world in recent days.
Last week, Belgian authorities said they had seized nearly five tons of cocaine hidden in shipping containers in the port of Antwerp as part of an international investigation into a drug smuggling ring.
Shortly before that, Spanish police seized 13 tons of cocaine, the largest amount ever seized in that country, and arrested one person.
In the recently published public version of the Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA 2024), it is stated that Balkan criminal groups are also using new routes to smuggle cocaine.
"Despite the fact that most of this type of narcotics still enters Europe through ports in Spain and the Netherlands, during the reporting period, criminal organizations intensified the use of the 'eastern' route, where cocaine is smuggled by ocean-going ships to the countries of Southeast and Eastern Europe. from where it enters the European market. Also, several attempts to smuggle cocaine through the port of Bar were registered. In the reporting period, the organization of cocaine smuggling through ports in Africa was registered more and more frequently, where the port of Alexandria in Egypt, as well as ports in Libya, stand out. Ports in Africa are primarily transit areas through which cocaine is smuggled from South America to the countries of Europe, Asia and Australia," states the document, which was drawn up by an interdepartmental team composed of representatives of the intelligence and security sector and the Special State Prosecutor's Office, with the coordination of the Bureau of operational coordination of intelligence and security sector authorities.
Bonus video:
