A months-long investigation between NSW Police and the Australian Border Force into cocaine and MDMA imported from Spain led to a truck driver and his encrypted mobile phone on Monday.
Police this week raided nine different storage units in Brookvale, Cromer, Chatswood, Artarmon and Macquarie Park, after 312 kilograms of cocaine and 236 kilos of MDMA hidden in a shipment of shampoo bottles were seized by Australian Border Force officers. The truck driver was arrested in Cromer.
Police raid a storage unit at Cromer on Monday, where they arrested a truck driver.Credit: NSW Police
Investigators believe the drugs, worth approximately $140 million, were destined for regional NSW.
State Crime Command’s Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said on Tuesday that the seizure is the most “significant” of its kind.
Cash seized from a Cromer storage unit.Credit: NSW Police
“We’ve seen over the last couple of months the quality, purity and quantity of drugs throughout regional NSW comparable to Sydney. We’ve seen cocaine, we’ve seen ice and obviously in this shipment MDMA,” he said.
“This is probably the first time we’ve seen such a significant seizure bound for regional NSW.”
Wastewater analysis confirmed the increase in drug usage across the state outside Sydney, Mr Smith said.
While the truck driver - who is facing two minor counts of drug possession - is from a Maitland-based company, the Herald understands the shipment of drugs was destined for Tamworth and the state’s west.
The trucking company remains under investigation, with police expecting more arrests.
“There was always that allegation, that certainly the transport chain is the method through which it gets out there [regional NSW], it plays a significant part from port,” Mr Smith said.
The investigation was sparked by a call to BorderWatch by an Australian before the shipment left Spain, ABF’s regional investigations Superintendent Gary Low said.
“It was pretty poorly packed. [There were] over 200 boxes, cocaine and MDMA were put underneath the bottles of shampoo.”