In a landmark blow to transnational organized drug trafficking, Australian law enforcement has seized 2.7 metric tons of cocaine at a semi-rural property on Sydney’s western fringe, marking the largest single cocaine haul in the nation’s history, official announcements confirmed Monday.
Investigators from the Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce detailed that the contraband was discovered June 19, stashed in plastic tubs inside custom-built underground bunkers. The bunkers were carefully concealed beneath three shipping containers fitted with false floors, designed to hide the entry to the storage space on the Londonderry property. Law enforcement estimates the street value of the seized drug at 816 million Australian dollars, equivalent to roughly 572 million U.S. dollars.
Two male Sydney residents, aged 21 and 25, were taken into custody at the property immediately following the discovery. Both men face formal charges of possessing a commercial quantity of an illegal controlled substance, and conviction carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under Australian drug laws.
The new record surpasses the previous national benchmark set just this year, when authorities intercepted 2.34 metric tons of cocaine from a fishing vessel near K’gari—formerly known as Fraser Island—off the coast of Queensland.
Investigative details show the cocaine bound for Sydney, Australia’s largest and most populous city and the capital of New South Wales, was originally offloaded from a large vessel at Midge Point, a remote coastal location in Queensland’s sparsely populated tropical north. Members of a Sydney-based organized crime syndicate then transported the shipment 1,800 kilometers overland by road to the Londonderry storage property, police allege.
Law enforcement officials also confirmed they believe this shipment originated from the same “mother ship” that supplied a 178-kilogram cocaine seizure uncovered earlier in Queensland. Six people have already been charged in connection to that earlier bust, which also uncovered an additional 142 kilograms of methamphetamine during the ongoing investigation.
Investigators have identified the suspected mother ship as the MV Wealth, a cargo vessel flying the flag of Belize. The ship is already in custody after authorities in the Solomon Islands seized it on suspicion of ties to transnational organized criminal activity. The Solomon Islands lie roughly 2,000 kilometers northeast of Queensland’s coastline.
Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay noted that criminal networks are increasingly exploiting Queensland’s extensive 13,000-kilometer shoreline, which offers countless isolated landing points that make smuggling operations easier to conceal. A key driver of this activity is the uniquely high retail price of cocaine in Australia, which turns the country into an extraordinarily profitable market for international drug trafficking groups, industry and law enforcement analysts add.