By Perry Duffin
A “transnational organised criminal” flew into Sydney to allegedly set up drug labs, which distributed hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine across the city, for a network armed to the teeth with military-style weapons, police claim.
The Australian Federal Police, on Saturday, will announce they charged three men and a woman for allegedly operating two drug labs in the city’s west.
One of the three men arrested by the AFP and the assault rifle allegedly found inside a drug lab in Sydney’s west.Credit: AFP
The investigation began after border force officials warned the AFP about a Mexican-Colombian man who flew into Sydney in September.
Authorities grew concerned the 53-year-old held suspected links to “transnational serious organised crime groups”, sources have told The Herald.
The suspected “crime tourist” met with a Greystanes man, aged 33, at a home in Sydney’s west on 28 September.
A few days later the Greystanes man allegedly transported precursor chemicals to the home.
Cocaine allegedly seized at one of the properties raided on Friday.Credit: AFP
He also allegedly took drug manufacturing material to a storage facility in Wentworth which he had rented out.
Two weeks later, on Friday, the AFP and NSW Police’s tactical operations unit stormed multiple properties connected to the crew.
Inside one home they allegedly found a drug laboratory and, equally concerning, a cache of weapons including an assault rifle.
A photograph shows the weapon propped up against a wall next to a basketball and waste paper bins filled with soft drink bottles and medication.
The assault rifle allegedly found inside a Sydney drug lab.Credit: AFP
Another weapon was pictured stashed in a drinks cart, surrounded by bottles of alcohol.
The home of the Greystanes man was allegedly holding $1m in cash in bundles of notes inside shopping bags.
Bricks of cocaine, 12 kilograms in total, were also allegedly hidden at the home along with a further 10 kilograms of meth and an encrypted phone, the AFP claims.
When officers breached another home, in Sydney’s south-west, they allegedly found a 34-year-old man in the middle of a “chemical extraction” inside another drug lab, police claim.
Police allegedly found 120kg of the drug ice at the property.
A 47-year-old woman was also arrested at the house before NSW Police chemical teams began dismantling the labs.
AFP Detective Superintendent Kristie Cressy said they had stopped a “production line” which would have allowed millions of dollars to flow into the underworld.
“Through our combined commitment to combatting organised crime, the AFP has stopped a production line of methamphetamine from hitting Australian streets,” Cressy said in a statement.
“Criminal syndicates involved in drug manufacturing do not care about the harm they cause to Australian communities – they put our community at risk of violence for their own greed.”
The four were charged with manufacturing drugs, among other offences, and will face court over the weekend.
“Criminal tourism, including collecting imports of illicit drugs or manufacturing illicit drugs, is a threat we face every day, and we will work shoulder to shoulder with our law enforcement partners to end the practice,” ABF Director Border Intelligence Geoff Quinn said in a statement.