Authorities said that Australian police arrested 13 people and seized a total of 2.3 tons of cocaine in raids conducted after the boat of the suspects broke down near the Queensland coast.
Federal police released a statement saying that the drugs would have sold for 760 million Australian Dollars ($ 494 million) if they reached the 28 million-person country.
The drugs, according to investigators in Brisbane, were brought from an unidentified South American nation.
Stephen Jay, the Australian Federal Police commander, said that Saturday and Sunday’s arrests were made after a month-long investigation following a tipoff indicating that the Comancheros motorbike gang planned a multiton smuggling scheme. The police released pictures and videos of the operation. They showed the cabin of a fishing boat filled with large packages of alleged drugs.
Jay revealed that the smugglers had made two attempts at transporting drugs by sea to Australia from a mothership anchored hundreds of miles offshore. The first boat was a failure, and on Saturday the second boat sank, leaving the suspects at sea for hours before police raided and seized the drugs.
Jay stated that the mothership was located in international waters, and it was not captured.
Jay stated that authorities have previously seized more than a ton of cocaine, but this weekend’s haul is the largest ever recorded in Australia.
The accused are accused of conspiring with others to import the drugs into Australia via sea. They were scheduled to appear before various courts in Australia on Monday. The maximum punishment under this charge is life imprisonment.
Police said that some were arrested while others waited on shore to collect cocaine. Police said two of the suspects were under 18 years old and all Australian citizens.
Jay stated, “Australia is an attractive market for organized crime groups to send drugs like cocaine.”
The seizure marks the latest in a string of massive drug busts around the globe in recent days. On Wednesday, the Colombian navy announced that authorities from dozens of countries seized over 225 metric tons of cocaine in a six-week mega-operation where they unearthed a new Pacific trafficking route from South America to Australia. Officials said they had also seized “increasingly sophisticated” drug-laden semisubmersibles — better known as “narco subs” — that can travel 10,000 miles without refueling.
As part of an investigation of a drug trafficking ring, Belgian authorities announced last week that they had seized almost five tons (five metric tonnes) of cocaine hidden in shipping containers.
Only a few days earlier, Spanish police announced that they had made an arrest and seized 13 tons of cocaine – the largest haul of cocaine ever seized in the country.
