Six men front court over alleged importation of billions worth of meth

Huge hauls of methamphetamine worth $1.7bn destined for our streets – and concealed in massive consignments of canola oil – were intercepted by authorities.

Six men accused of pumping methamphetamine worth $1.7bnn into Melbourne have been further remanded in custody until their committal hearing.

Justin Craig Barnett, 38, Benjamin Wilson, 32, Brendan Bradshaw, 51, Hung Richard Nguyen, 28, US national Channara Thong, 26 and Hien Pham, 19 from St Albans appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

They were allegedly part of a crime syndicate involved in the importation of four huge hauls of meth totalling six tonnes which would have supplied 19 million doses of the drug.

Barnett, Bradshaw and Wilson have been remanded in custody until April 26 while the others are due back in court on June 24.

The drug consignment hauls in crystal and liquid form, most of it concealed in massive consignments of canola oil, were intercepted in Australia, Canada and New Zealand early last year.

Police allege Barnett was a conduit for a Canadian crime cell and is the prime Australian player in multiple shipments.

Wilson allegedly used his role in a logistics firm to transport goods that were substituted for drugs by authorities after they arrived in Australia.

The shipments included a 2900 litre cargo hidden in 180 bottles of Canola from Canada that arrived in January last year and was moved to storage locations across Victoria.

A 325 litre consignment of liquid methamphetamine, also hidden in canola oil, was intercepted in Canada in May while a 2900 litre liquid meth cache was seized in Canada, also being freighted in canola oil.

A 200kg haul of crystal meth was also seized by Canadian authorities in December last year.

A clandestine laboratory was seized at a Sunshine North property.