Arrests made, charges laid after authorities seize six tonnes of meth concealed in canola oil

Six men have been charged after huge hauls of methamphetamine destined for our streets – and concealed in massive consignments of canola oil – were intercepted by authorities.

A crime syndicate’s alleged plot to pump methamphetamine worth $1.7 billion into Melbourne has been foiled.

The four huge hauls totalling six tonnes – which would have supplied 19 million doses of the drug – were intercepted here, in Canada and in New Zealand since January.

Police on Wednesday made arrests over allegations of the conspiracy to bring the drug to Australia in crystal and liquid form, most of it concealed in massive consignments of canola oil.

Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police joint organised crime taskforce investigators, working with officers from the Five Eyes intelligence agency, have been involved in Operation Parkes for five months.

Some of the seized drugs. Picture: Supplied

The plot involved importing meth worth $1.7 billion. Picture: Supplied

Police suspect the meth was destined for the Victorian and NSW markets.

Seven raids were carried out on Wednesday on homes and a storage unit in Melbourne’s CBD and the western suburbs.

Justin Craig Barnett, 38-year-old man from the CBD, who had recently returned from overseas was charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs.

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

Another CBD man, Benjamin Wilson 32, is also facing high-level importing charges.

He is alleged to have used his role in a logistics firm to transport goods that were substituted for drugs by authorities after they arrived in Australia.

The pair faced court on Thursday.

Another two men – Hien Pham, 19, from St Albans and US national Channara Ly Thong, 26 – faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday night.

They have both been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs and were remanded in custody.

Sunshine North man Hung Richard Nguyen, 28, and Brendan Bradshaw, 51, from the CBD have also been charged.The accused men are set to return to court on October 18.

There were seven raids carried out on Wednesday. Picture: Supplied

Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police joint organised crime taskforce investigators worked with officers from the Five Eyes intelligence agency. Picture: Supplied

A clandestine laboratory was seized at a Sunshine North property during the warrants and police expect more arrests will be made.

The shipments allegedly included:

● A 2900 litre cargo hidden in 180 bottles of Canola from Canada that arrived in January and was moved to storage locations across Victoria.

● A 325 litre consignment of liquid methamphetamine, also hidden in canola oil, intercepted in Canada in May.

● A 2900 litre liquid meth cache seized in Canada, also being freighted in canola oil.

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

Members of the Australian Border Force, the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission have also been involved in Parkes.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Hilda Sirec said all of the imports were substituted with harmless substances so authorities had time to identify offenders here and their links overseas.

Ms Sirec said such work was crucial in removing organised crime’s profit base and ­capacity for further offending in other areas.

“What is emerging is the trafficking of illicit drugs in state war craft,” she said.

“In parts of the world, some state actors appear to be working with organised crime to distribute illicit drugs to ­regions in a bid to undermine societies and democracy. This challenges our rules-based order and the rule of law at levels never seen before.”

Australian Border Force acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Holzheimer praised the dedication and expertise of the organisation’s officers.

Mr Holzheimer said the Australian border was one of the nation’s most critical assets and would be relentlessly protected.

“The audacity that many criminal actors show when they’re attempting to import illicit substances into Australia is astounding, and this is yet another example of that,” Mr Holzheimer said.

The changing scale of meth trafficking.

A decade ago, what was then Australia’s biggest recorded ice bust was made in Sydney.

Investigators seized 585kg of the drug, concealed as cleaning chemicals, as they carried out a sweep of raids across Sydney suburbs.

It is evidence of Australia’s voracious appetite for methamphetamine that the bust of February, 2013, has since then been repeatedly eclipsed by ever-increasing hauls.

Wednesday’s revelations of the foiling of a six tonne series of importations to Melbourne was the latest evidence of this trend.

In 2017, 903kg of meth was found at a Nunawading warehouse and, two years later, a 1.7 tonne Australian-bound shipment was intercepted before it left United States shores.

Some of the shipments planned by various syndicates which were exposed in the 2021 Ironside sting were well beyond the 2013 Sydney haul.

Middle-Eastern organised crime figure George Marrogi is suspected of bringing in up to four tonnes of meth between 2019 and 2021 while sitting in a maximum-security prison cell.

Last year, Australian Border Forces officers attached to Strikeforce Chellington uncovered 1.8kg of ice in a cargo of marble.

Members attached to Operation Parkes, who made their move yesterday, have been scrutinising importations totalling six tonnes.

Meth is one of the cornerstones of Australian organised crime and transnational syndicates covet a bloated Down Under market willing to pay top dollar.

A while ago a leading criminal lawyer gave an insight into the changing scale of meth trafficking.

He told the Herald Sun he’d barely roll out of bed and pull on his Zegna suit to defend a client charged over a 50kg bust, an amount which not so long ago would have been considered a major case.

Authorities fear there is a “white noise” factor about colossal consignments which, if they get through, have the capacity to cause enormous damage.

The level of meth traces in waste water testing has borne out anecdotal evidence that there is more dependence on the drug, though it is set against an environment of lower discretionary spending.

There have been some terrible consequences.

Courts constantly preside over defendants who have committed horrific violent crimes while under its influence.

Many of the nation’s most high-profile homicides have been linked to meth.

Some were committed by killers with brains addled by use and others by criminals willing to take a life in pursuit of the money it brings.

The industry props up outlaw groups from bikie gangs to Middle-Eastern organised crime cells.

Increasingly, major road accidents are linked to meth and the health sphere has been hit hard by the drug’s damage to addicts, both physical and mental.

Despite the huge busts of recent times, police know their work is not the sole solution and that the best way to curb the trade is for demand from individuals to ease.

“We do not want apathy in this country. This is a very dangerous drug,” an Australian Federal Police source said recently.