$34m cocaine bust: South African man Paul Finlayson charged

A South African man has fronted court charged with allegedly importing $34 million worth of cocaine.

A South African man charged with allegedly importing $34 million worth of cocaine will appear in Campbelltown Court on Friday.

In documents tendered to Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday police allege Paul Shannon Finlayson, 45, imported 68kg of cocaine; hidden in wooden pallets carrying furniture.

Australian Border Force (ABF) officers allegedly discovered the shipment of 62 packages on April 8 and took them to an ABF facility.

A stash of cocaine discovered inside wooden pallets carrying furniture. Picture: Australian Border Force

Police then repackaged the crates with an inert substance in place of the drugs and returned them to the container they arrived in at Botany Bay.

Days later, the container carrying the pallets was delivered to a factory on Hepher Rd, Campbelltown registered to a business named Prima Bella Australia.

Finlayson arrived at Sydney International Airport from South Africa on Monday night.

On Tuesday, as police watched on, he allegedly went to the Hepher Rd address and began to unpack the crates using tools he had bought from a nearby Bunnings store.

According to police documents, he sent a text message to another man saying: “It looks line (sic) thos (sic) have been opened (Six).”

He was stopped by police as he was leaving the industrial complex and arrested about 2.30pm.

Finlayson (wearing blue) is arrested by police on Tuesday, Picture: NSW Police

Finlayson is facing charges of import commercial quantity of border controlled drug and possess commercial quantity unlawful import: border controlled drug.

Following the arrest, investigators executed three search warrants in Campbelltown, where they seized items police say are relevant to the investigation.