SYDNEY: The Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, said that Customs and Border Protection selected a cargo container from Hamburg in Germany for examination. A major operation by the Australian Joint Organised Crime Group has resulted in Australia’s single biggest seizure of ice in the country’s history.
In the container 1917 kilogram of MDMA or ecstasy, and 849 kilograms of methamphetamine or ice was found.
This is the single biggest seizure of ice in Australian history and the second largest of MDMA.
The MDMA pills recovered are believed to equal to upwards of 10 million individual doses.
“Our action to identify and select this particular sea cargo container… was a result of an intelligence operation that we have been running for a period time. We did not just stumble upon this particular container,” said Quaedvlieg.
“A importation of this size is orchestrated by a serious and organised crime.”
He said the drugs had been concealed by personal effects and furniture.
He wouldn’t reveal more details the investigation, saying that it is “still on going.”
Six people have been charged with serious drug importation offences.
AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said search warrants were being undertaken across New South Wales as a result of the bust, and police were hopeful for more arrests.
Last year across the major drug types – heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy – customs seized about 5 tonnes at the border.
This year they had been tracking drugs at a similar rate, until last week.
