Three Sydney dockworkers have been charged over a cocaine shipment worth more than $100 million that was discovered concealed behind a false wall in a shipping container.
Officials stated that they had been investigating a criminal syndicate believed to be collaborating with “trusted insiders” at Sydney ports to smuggle commercial quantities of illegal drugs into Australia.
They mentioned receiving intelligence about a group intending to extract illicit drugs from an imported shipping container while it was stored on the Sydney waterfront.
On Sunday, a 25-year-old man was apprehended while exiting the shipping container, whose legitimate cargo had already been unloaded. Police reported finding a crowbar, an angle grinder, ear protection, portable lights, and other tools inside, which were allegedly being used by the man to breach a false wall at the back of the shipping container.
Behind this wall were 506 blocks of cocaine, each weighing 1 kilo (2.2 pounds), totaling over 1,115 pounds. The shipment had a street value exceeding 164 Australian dollars ($106 million), according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in a joint news release with the New South Wales Police Force on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old man, along with two others aged 38 and 42, appeared in a New South Wales court on Monday. Only the 42-year-old was granted bail.
If convicted, the three men could face life in prison. They are next expected to appear in court on Oct. 29.
Though the shipping container came from Europe, police said they were still investigating the origin of the cocaine. Searches of two of the men’s homes found 330,000 Australian dollars (about $215,000) in cash suspected of being proceeds from crime.
“To anyone lured in by the false promise of riches from drug importations — these offenses carry the potential of life in jail,” AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Fogarty said.
The investigation was carried out by the Multi Agency Strike Team, a collaboration between Australian law enforcement agencies that aims to “investigate and target trusted insiders assisting transnational serious organized crime syndicates.”
There have been a series of recent drug busts in Australia, including late last year when police seized a record 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after the suspects’ boat broke down off the coast of Queensland.
In 2022, police also found 2 U.S. tons of methamphetamine hidden in marble tiles shipped from the Middle East to Sydney in what they said was the largest-ever seizure of the illicit drug in the country.
