Australia’s largest seizure of ‘ice’ recorded after drug found stashed in marble slabs

Border force officials say criminals are becoming more sophisticated in how they smuggle drugs into Australia after $1.7b worth of drugs was found hidden inside marble slabs and a vintage luxury car.

Border force officials say criminals are becoming more sophisticated in how they smuggle drugs into Australia, after $1.7 billion worth of drugs was found hidden inside marble slabs and a vintage luxury car.

Australian Border Force commissioner Erin Dale said officials were having to evolve their investigation tactics and technology to keep up with savvy criminal enterprises.

“We are seeing various concealment methods,” she said.

“Hence our ability, training, intelligence and technology are important parts in coming to find those concealment efforts.”

With the ABF, police this week stopped a total of 1800kg of ‘ice’ from hitting the streets.

The shipment, which came from the Middle East hidden inside marble slabs, has an estimated potential street value of more than $1.6 billion.

Ice and cocaine were found stashed in the Bentley. Picture: NSW Police

Police have counted the seizure as a huge win in the war on drugs, and are confident it will disrupt the street level supply of ice.

“We will allege this syndicate was extremely well connected in several corners of the globe,” State Crime Command Acting Director of Operations, Detective Chief Superintendent John Watson said.

“The fact that we have seized a further tonne – potentially ten million street deals – of this insidious drug just shows how little regard these types of groups have for the wellbeing of the community.

“Combined with the seizure from earlier this month, NSW Police and ABF officers have stopped more than 1.8 tonnes of ‘ice’ at the border – this is now the largest ‘ice’ bust in Australian history.”

Police also stopped a further $155 million of illicit drugs from distribution this week, after the ABF found the haul stashed inside a vintage Bentley from overseas.

A total of 161kg of methylamphetamine and 30kg of cocaine was found inside the 1960 vintage Bentley S2, which had been shipped into Sydney in a shipping container from Canada.

Ice was found hidden inside slabs of marble stone. Picture: NSW Police

ABF officers and police removed the drugs before the car was delivered to its intended address in Rooty Hill.

Once there, two men in their early 20s allegedly launched a brazen mission to extract the drugs.

The pair started cutting into the car with angle grinders in broad daylight as the vehicle sat under a carport.

Police were covertly watching the pair and pounced on them as they searched the car.

“As soon as they revived the motor vehicle they got about cutting it open almost immediately,” Criminal Groups Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said.

Drugs seized from the Bentley shipment. Picture: NSW Police

Ice and cocaine were found hidden behind the headlight of the Bentley. Picture: NSW Police

“They were very keen to see what was in there… it was visible from the roadway.”

Det Supt Taylor said police were investigating whether the men were connected to any criminal networks in Western Sydney.

“These sort of seizures have a tremendous impact on organised crime networks, they create chaos for them,” he said.

“Sometimes with that chaos comes collateral damage and they start to look at recovering their debts, and that may be the correlation or nexus of what we see on the streets with violent crime.”

The 23-year-old man who lived at the home with his family was charged with seven offences, including import commercial quantity border-controlled drug, deal with property proceeds of crime, large commercial drug supply, and participate criminal group contribute criminal activity.

The second man -aged 22 from Botany - was charged with six offences, including import commercial quantity border-controlled drug, large commercial drug supply, deal with property proceeds of crime, and participate criminal group contribute criminal activity.