A seizure of meth worth more than AU$1.6 billion (some US$1.1 billion) was announced by the Australian police on Friday. The seizure is the largest ever bust of methamphetamine in the country. Nearly two metric tons of the drug were concealed inside marble slabs shipped into the continent from the Middle East.
Australian Border Force (ABF), in the first part of the haul, discovered some some 748 kilograms of the drug in Port Botany, a southeastern suburb of Sydney, early this month. This discovery led to the arrest of three suspects, the police said.
According to news agency Reuters, during investigation, AFB examined an additional number of containers that arrived in Port Botany last week, discovering another haul of marble tiles. The consignment was deconstructed and turned out to contain additional 1060 kilograms of meth, bringing the total amount seized to some 1.8 metric tons. So far, no charges have been brought or arrests made in connection with the new discovery, the police noted.
Australian investigators are now trying to find the overseas suppliers involved in the methamphetamine delivery. “The Middle Eastern region is probably our main focus. But I certainly wouldn’t restrict our investigation to just that region,” Police Detective Chief Supt. John Watson informed local media.
The containers filled with tiles containing meth were scheduled to be delivered to a factory which was set up just to extract the drug, Watson said.The police have not yet determined how often the factory has been used.
“Combined with the seizure from earlier this month, NSW Police and ABF officers have stopped more than 1.8 tonnes of ‘ice’ at the border – this is now the largest ‘ice’ bust in Australian history,” Watson said in a separate statement.
The previous record meth haul was 1.6 metric tons and was seized in Melbourne in 2019. In that incident, drugs were found hidden in speakers shipped from Thailand.
