Cops foil Malaysian drug ring plot to smuggle heroin worth $110m through Melbourne docks
An international crime gang’s “cunning” scheme to flood heroin worth $110 million onto Melbourne streets had authorities fooled when the deadly delivery was cleared for release. But at the last moment they decided to give it one final look over.
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A villainous plot to flood Melbourne streets with a staggering amount of heroin worth $110 million has been foiled at the last minute.
Australian operatives of a Malaysian crime gang schemed to smuggle the deadly drug onto the streets via the Melbourne docks in late-2016.
The consignment arrived “cunningly” hidden inside steel tubes disguised as machine parts in a shipping container bound for a Collingwood company.
Australian Border Force greenlit the consignment’s clearance after officers detected “no anomalies” shortly after the container arrived on October 17, 2016.
The deadly delivery was set to be released just before authorities gave it a final look over in March 2017.
This time border authorities detected “anomalies”, then referred the matter to Australian Federal Police.
Investigators X-rayed the container and discovered a “dismantled conveyor rolling system” which contained six steel tubes.
The tubes contained heroin masked with paprika and wrapped in cellophane.
Authorities seized more than 40kg of high-grade heroin stamped “Double UO Globe”.
The haul was later estimated to have a wholesale value of up to $13 million and a street value up to $110 million.
The consignment was repacked with a “reconstructed and fully substituted six steel tubes in preparation for a controlled delivery”.
In the meantime, Malay nationals Chu Siang Teoh, Norman George and Muhammad Sakampong conspired to get the consignment off the docks and onto the streets.
Ringleader Teoh pulled the strings while authorities mobilised their sting.
Teoh, nicknamed “Boss”, and his cronies used fake IDs, shonky passports, bogus company fronts and dubious bank accounts to wrangle their product off the docks.
Much of their conspiracy focused on finding a warehouse to secretly extract the heroin.
However, authorities stalked the gang’s every move via phone and encrypted message intercepts.
George was arrested with a bogus passport at an ANZ bank in Donvale on April 5, 2017.
Sakampong was pinched returning a hire car at Melbourne airport the next day.
Teoh was done by AFP members while driving back to Tumut in NSW on April 7.
Sakampong, 27, was the final gang member to learn his fate when he was sentenced in the County Court last month to a maximum nine-and-a-half years’ jail with a non-parole period of six years.
Judge William Stuart said Sakampong played an “important role” in the racket and denounced his conduct.
“This was an attempted possession than no less than 19 times the commercial quantity of what had been heroin,” he said.
“Which, but for the intervention of the authorities would’ve made it into the Australian market.
“The consequences had the authorities not detected the anomalies in the machinery would’ve been not insignificant to our community.”
Teoh, 14 years with a non-parole period of 10 years, and George, 11 years with a non-parole period of seven years and six months, were both sentenced in February 2018.
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