Federal police try to identify crime syndicate behind elaborate smuggling scheme into NSW, after drugs found at port inspection in Sydney
More than 300kg of methamphetamine concealed deep inside a steel hydraulic press has been smuggled into New South Wales from Mexico. Small Hydraulic Press Machine
Australian federal police say the seized haul has an estimated value of more than $273m and could have made up 3m individual street deals.
The force is now trying to identify the transnational crime syndicate behind the elaborate importation that arrived by ship on 18 April.
Australian Border Force officers’ suspicions were raised when they examined the consignment at the container examination facility in Sydney because of the density of the steel.
When engineering experts drilled into the core of the hydraulic press they found a white substance deep inside the machinery, which returned a positive result for meth.
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When the machinery was pulled apart officers found 79 blocks of meth, secreted inside two lead-lined tubs.
An AFP detective sergeant, Salam Zreika, says only a well-established organised crime syndicate could have financed and managed such an elaborate scheme.
“Retrieving the drugs from this concealment in Australia would require significant resources, expertise and space, so someone in the community may have heard something that could help us to identify those involved locally,” he said on Wednesday.
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“This seizure shows the extremes that drug trafficking syndicates will go to in their bids to smuggle illicit drugs into Australia because of the profits they can make.”
The AFP was working with law enforcement partners locally and overseas to investigate the origins of the drugs to identify the criminals behind the importation, he said.
Frame Hydraulic Press “Methamphetamine causes immense harm. On average, 33 people were hospitalised each day in Australia for methamphetamine-related incidents in 2020-21.”