Wai Chun Cheung and Boon Bing Koo in court over possession of ice
Authorities seized more than 600kg of ice hidden inside a shipment of toilet rolls with an estimated street value of $560m, arresting a major offender before he departed Melbourne Airport.
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Two men attempted to flood the streets of Victoria with more than 600kg of ice found hidden inside a shipment of toilet rolls with an estimated street value of $560m.
Australian Border Force discovered the drug in a consignment of 16 pallets of toilet rolls in a container that arrived into Melbourne from Malaysia on September 26, 2023.
Three pellets were resting on two layers of white parcels that contained 622 1kg packets containing methamphetamine that was labelled as tea.
The discovery led to the arrest of 33-year-old Hong Kong national Wai Chun Cheung and Malaysian man Boon Bing Koo.
Cheung, who was nabbed at Melbourne Airport while attempting to board a flight to China, was sentenced in County Court last week to 11 years’ jail for attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
Koo was jailed for five and a half years for performing several tasks including unpacking, unwrapping and reloading of the consignment in a warehouse in Sunshine North.
The court heard 16 pellets of toilet rolls arrived in Melbourne from Malaysia on September 26, 2023.
Authorities seized 622kg of meth — equivalent to more than 6.2m individual street deals.
In his police interview, Cheung claimed he had been asked to go to the warehouse by someone he knew as “Fat Boy” to watch for any danger and was paid $4000. He said he came to Melbourne for travel, had been to see the Twelve Apostles, and did not touch anything at the warehouse.
He told a psychologist “I met a friend who asked if I wanted to make fast, quick money ... go to Australia and be ‘on guard’, not touch anything, no danger.”
Judge Frances Hogan said the sheer quantity of the drugs involved and the length of time of Cheung’s offending showed he was trusted by those higher up on the organisation scale,
She said Cheung flew into Australia specifically to supervise the ice consignment and give directions in relation to its unpacking, repacking and reloading.
“Courts have repeatedly made plain that stern punishment will be warranted in almost every case, so that a message will get through to would-be drug importers that the potential financial rewards to be gained from such criminal activities will not be worth the risk.”
In a statement, Australian Federal Police detective Superintendent Jason McArthur said Operation Improcco spared Australians from the violence, addiction and further criminality this shipment of ice would have brought to our shores.
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