Australian police seize record cocaine haul worth £400m as ‘mothership’ remains out of reach
Bust leads to arrest of 13 people suspected to be members of smuggling syndicate
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Your support makes all the difference.Australian police seized a record 2.3 tonnes of cocaine over the weekend after a fishing boat broke down off the Queensland coast, leading to the arrest of at least 13 people.
The detained people are suspected to be members of a drug smuggling syndicate aboard a mothership sailing in international waters.
This is the biggest haul of cocaine ever seized in Australia, with an estimated resale value of AUS $760m (£388m), police said.
The drugs came from an unidentified country in South America, investigators in Brisbane said on Monday.
The alleged drug traffickers were left stranded on Saturday after their boat suffered a suspected mechanical breakdown 18km off the northeastern tip of K’gari island, formerly known as Fraser Island, police said.
Police had been tipped off about the Comancheros motorcycle gang planning a large drug smuggling operation, federal police commander Stephen Jay said.
The smugglers tried twice to bring in drugs by sea from a mothership floating hundreds of kilometres offshore, Mr Jay added.
The first boat broke down and the second foundered on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided and seized the drugs.
They arrested two men at sea and 11 offshore, including two minors under the age of 18. All of them are Australian citizens, police said.
The maximum punishment for drug trafficking is life imprisonment.
The arrested men include the Brisbane vice president of the Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, who is accused of engaging in violence, extortion and trafficking, police said.
All suspects have been charged for being part of a criminal syndicate and with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of drugs into Australia by sea. They are set to be presented in various courts on Monday.
"Australia is a very attractive market for organised criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine," Mr Jay said.
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