Kit Bros Trucking targeted in raids after Mostafa Baluch arrest

A trucking yard has been raided by police a day after alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch was found hiding in a shipping container.

A trucking company police allege is linked to the thwarted effort by Mostafa Baluch to flee NSW has been targeted by police in early morning raids.

Dozens of officers descended on Kit Bros Trucking yard at Liverpool from about 6am on Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into Baluch’s failed escape.

A day earlier Jovanco “John” Kitanovski was charged by police with perverting the course of justice for his alleged efforts to knowingly smuggle the accused drug kingpin into Queensland.

Baluch, 33, was found hiding in a Mercedes inside the shipping container on the back of Kitanovski’s truck.

Compliance checks have been undertaken in Liverpool. Picture: Toby Zerna

NSW Police and Transport NSW officers at the truck depot this morning. Picture: Toby Zerna

Kit Bros in Liverpool. Picture: Richard Dobson

Mostafa Baluch.

Baluch during his arrest after being discovered in a shipping container on a truck.

State and federal authorities have been determined in their efforts to pursue Baluch and those linked to him ever since he cut off his ankle tracking bracelet and disappeared on October 25.

That led Highway Patrol and NSW Transport officers to the trucking yard to carry out compliance checks on Thursday.

Kitanovski spent the night in custody after being refused bail at Grafton Local Court on Wednesday.

He had initially been allowed to leave the border checkpoint where Baluch was discovered, but NSW Police later caught up with him at a truck stop near Grafton just before 9am.