Australian police seize ice worth $900m in record drug bust

Australian authorities have made the largest ever seizure of the drug ice in the nation’s history in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

The record 903kg haul, valued at almost $900 million, follows a joint operation involving the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Victoria Police.

The massive amount of crystal methamphetamine, equivalent to nine million individual hits, was hidden between floorboards, according to authorities.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan said the drugs were discovered at a warehouse in Nunawading.  

“We located 70 boxes of floorboards ... in each of those floorboards was concealed between the floorboards two kilograms of methamphetamine,” he said. “It came on a container on a boat to a port in Melbourne. You can appreciate the concealment was quite complex and unique, something we hadn’t seen before.”

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana said the record haul of ice was discovered following an investigation into a drug syndicate, which resulted in the seizure of 40kg of methamphetamine, 175,000 cigarettes and also $140,000 in cash and other contraband.

“Continuing on from that investigation, we subsequently worked with the AFP and the subsequent warrant was executed in Nunawading where the floorboards were seized,” Fontana said.

Federal Minister for Justice Michael Keenan said that the seizure was a “serious blow to organized crime around the country.”

“Of all the drugs, ice represents the most serious epidemic we have faced in Australia’s history,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday morning. “Because of this seizure, the police have taken almost $900 million worth of drugs off the streets.”

“This is money that hasn't gone into the pockets of organized criminals and, of course, it means this is an enormous number of hits of ice that have been taken off our streets,” he added.

Police have arrested two Melbourne men over the incident -- a 53-year-old from Blackburn and another man from Doncaster -- but are still seeking to speak to two men, described by Victoria Police as being of Asian appearance and frequenting the Box Hill area of Melbourne.

Malcolm Turnbull has congratulated police on the massive seizure, calling ice a “scourge” on Australian families and labeling those who traffic it “merchants of death.”

“Our response to ice is ruthless,” Turnbull said. “We are working internationally and nationally to catch these merchants of death, these people who traffic in ice, to catch them and intercept their deadly cargoes. [Ice] destroys lives. It destroys families and communities.”

The historic seizure follows another record-breaking drug bust in January, when authorities found 1.4 tons of cocaine in a yacht off the New South Wales coast.  The Australian Federal Police charged six people over that incident, which the AFP described as a “trans-national” operation.

In Victoria alone, 1.7 tons of the drug ice has been seized so far this year, according to Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana.

In the most recent drug seizure, the Australian Federal Police have confirmed that the ice was being imported from Asia, but said they couldn't confirm the exact source as it was an “ongoing investigation.”

(Source: Agencies)

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