Melbourne truck driver caught up in $40m sting

A Melbourne truck driver has been arrested for allegedly being the inside man in a plot to smuggle 160kg of cocaine from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

A truck driver from Melbourne has been arrested for allegedly being the inside man in a $40 million cocaine smuggling plot.

In June, police smashed an alleged international organised crime syndicate after seizing 160kg of cocaine in Melbourne.

Australian Federal Police officers arrested five men as part of Operation Ironside after discovering the huge shipment was on its way to Melbourne from Hong Kong via Sydney.

On Thursday the AFP swooped to arrest a 55-year-old truck driver who they allege was critical to the plot.

The truck driver has been charged with aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs.

Police said last night that between April 27 and June 4 the man used his position as a truck driver to divert the attention of authorities and help the alleged criminal syndicate leader with the planned cocaine importation.

AFP seized 160kg of cocaine in Melbourne.

“The drugs these transnational organised crime syndicates are bringing into Australia are facilitated by trusted insiders whom abuse the access and influence they have available to them through their employment, such as the accused is alleged to have in this case,” Detective Superintendent Anthony Hall told the Herald Sun.

“That abuse of industry knowledge and access to the means to be able to perform a facilitation role as part of the criminal syndicate enables drugs to be sold on the streets of every major city and in our regional towns.”

The AFP launched the operation after intercepting messages about a large-scale cocaine importation destined for Melbourne in late May 2021.

The alleged syndicate, operating out of Hong Kong and Turkey, was using encrypted communications to organise the shipment via its Australian-based leader in Sydney.

On Thursday the AFP swooped to arrest a 55-year-old truck driver who they allege was critical to the plot.

Operation Ironside has ­resulted in charges for hundreds of organised crime figures after the AFP used technology that allowed it to see encrypted messages sent on the app ANOM in real time.

Acting on intelligence from the app and with help from Australian Border Force officers, AFP investigators moved quickly to seize the 160kg of cocaine, hidden inside a shipment of air filters that arrived in Melbourne on May 31.

ABF Acting Assistant Commissioner James Watson said: “The ongoing arrests speak to the far reaching impact of cross agency co-operation among law enforcement agencies.

“The ABF is working closely with the AFP and industry to identify and weed out those who seek to exploit their trusted position within the supply chain.”