Biggest ever seizure of fentanyl in Australia intercepted in Melbourne
Federal police and Australian border force stop five million doses of the opioid from entering the market after uncovering illicit shipment in Melbourne.
The AFP has seized the largest ever shipment to Australia of the deadly and highly addictive drug fentanyl in Melbourne.
AFP acting commander Anthony Hall said following a joint investigation with the Australian Border Force, authorities seized 11kg of pure fentanyl — the equivalent of five million doses — at the Port of Melbourne in December.
As well, 30kg of methamphetamine was discovered with an estimated street value of $27m. There is no precedence to provide the community with the estimated value of fentanyl on the Australian market.
The illicit drugs were discovered inside an industrial wooden lathe that was shipped from Canada in December, but it was only tested in February.
A fentanyl dose of 28mg can be fatal to a user, which is the equivalent weight of two grains of salt.
The first time an illegal importation of fentanyl was detected in Australia was 2017 and authorities have only ever detected amounts less than 30g until now.
Commander Hall said the drug bust is a serious concern for the Australian community.
“It is highly unusual to find this drug in Australia outside of its medicinal purposes. Fentanyl sold illegally in Australia is usually in the form of patches used for medical treatment which has been stolen or deferred from legitimate medical supplies,” he said.
“In overseas illicit drug markets fentanyl is most commonly cut to heroin often with fatal consequences.”
Using illicit drugs is like playing a game of Russian roulette because users cannot be certain of what they are ingesting, Commander Hall said.
“We don’t want to see Australia joining the harm and the effects to the community that are being experienced in other countries,” he said.
“Our concern is that if such a large amount of fentanyl was found in the hands of Australian criminal networks driven by greed, it could have potentially passed uncontrolled … into the community with fatal results.”
Australian border force commander James Watson said officers were “absolutely shocked” by the audacity of the attempted importation.
“I would describe it as an act of bastardry quite frankly,” he said.
“This is a massive amount of fentanyl and the excellent work that the officers showed on that day prevented these drugs from reaching our streets which has undoubtedly saved many, many lives.
“There is a fentanyl epidemic in some parts of the world and … (there are) thousands of deaths associated with the illicit use of fentanyl every year. It is usually a matter of life and death with this drug.”
Commander hall said ABF officers, suspicious of the shipping container, sent it to an examination facility in Melbourne.
“Inside the shipping container was a large and heavy industrial machine which was described as a lathe. (It was) X-rayed and ABF officers analysing the image quite frankly didn’t like what they saw.”
It showed “inorganic material” where it should not have been, he said.
A forklift had to be used to remove the lathe out of the container due to its heavy weight.
Police are calling on members of the community to come forward with information about the attempted import. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
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