Police and border force seize ice haul at Melbourne docks
BORDER Force police have charged three men over their involvement in a $300m ice haul to Melbourne, where the drugs were hidden inside metal gates.
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THREE men have been charged after police and border officers foiled a $300m drug smuggling plot in Melbourne.
Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force swooped after X-ray images picked up
something unusual in a shipping container from China on March 24.
Once they looked inside they found 300kg of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, hidden inside some large metal gates.
Once the border officers established the substance was drugs the AFP was called in.
After further investigation the AFP carried out a controlled delivery of the package to an address in Derrimut, 18km west of Melbourne CBD.
On Wednesday AFP surveillance officers observed three Vietnamese men attempting to gain access to the consignment.
Police executed four search warrants across Derrimut, St Albans, Sunshine and Melbourne CBD and arrested the three men.
More search warrants were carried out throughout Wednesday night and Thursday.
The metal gates were found at a factory in Derrimut.
Authorities said yesterday they had foiled a sophisticated syndicate.
AFP Detective Superintendent Neil Burnage, the co-ordinator of crime operations, said the success of this operation was a credit to the perseverance and skill of the investigators involved.
“Over the past few days, more than 100 AFP officers have been working tirelessly across Victoria to disrupt this syndicate,” he said.
“Any syndicate that can arrange an importation such as this has significant resources and reach, and the loss of 300kg of narcotics is definitely not what they were hoping for.
“As a result of this seizure, these drugs will not make it to our streets and cause further damage to our community.”
ABF Regional Commander Victoria James Watson said his organisation is constantly improving
its methods to foil crime syndicates.
“As this case shows, organised criminal syndicates are using sophisticated smuggling methodologies to evade ABF scrutiny, but our officers have the expertise and technology to detect even the most elaborate concealment,” he said.
“This is a significant detection ... countless lives would have been affected by this drug had it reached the streets of Australia, whether it be users, healthcare workers or families that have been torn apart by illicit drug use.”
The three Vietnamese nationals — aged 23, 24 and 25 — have all been charged with importing commercial quantities of a border controlled drug.
One man appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and the other two men appeared Friday. They were all refused bailed and remanded to appear again on August 3.