SA Police find $1m in cash during routine border check at Oodla Wirra, south of Broken Hill

A border check has found a vehicle containing $1m in cash as its driver attempted to return to South Australia from an alleged drug smuggling run to New South Wales.

Some of the $1m in cash found inside a ute being driven back from NSW. Picture: SA Police

Two men have been arrested after a routine border check discovered $1m in cash inside a car, leading to raids on three hydroponic cannabis crops.

SA Police officers on duty at a checkpoint at Oodla Wirra, halfway between Broken Hill and Adelaide, found the money after pulling over a Holden ute just before midnight last Saturday.

After speaking to its 51-year-old driver, who was returning from NSW, they searched his vehicle, locating the cash and two illegal substances, fantasy and amphetamine.

Further inquiries then led detectives to three properties – one in the Mid North and two in the Barossa Valley.

A hydroponic cannabis crop was found at the Mid North property on Sunday while another crop was found later in the day at a “grow house” in the Barossa Valley.

Police then searched the second Barossa Valley property, where a third hydroponic cannabis crop was discovered.

A Mid North man, 47, was arrested at the scene.

He was later charged with money laundering, trafficking in a commercial quantity of cannabis and possessing prescribed equipment used to cultivate cannabis.

The 51-year-old stopped at the police checkpoint was charged with money laundering, trafficking in controlled drugs, trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis and possessing prescribed equipment.

Both men were refused bail.

They will appear in the Port Pirie Magistrates Court and Elizabeth Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

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