$44m bust: Two charged over alleged far north 110kg coke haul

Two men will appear in court on Wednesday after police allegedly watched them unload 110kg of cocaine worth $44m from a small boat at a wharf on Cape York Peninsula.

A cocaine smuggling suspect is taken into custody. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Two men will appear in court on Wednesday after police allegedly watched them unload 110kg of cocaine worth $44m from a small boat at a wharf on Cape York Peninsula, in a major Australian Federal Police investigation.

The men, both aged 39, had travelled to Seisia, in the state’s far north, on Tuesday to meet the boat at the town’s wharf.

They were allegedly observed unloading a number of boxes from the boat by officers from the AFP Cairns crime team.

The two men then allegedly packed the boxes into their waiting car.

Police pulled over the car and a search uncovered boxes allegedly filled with 110 separate packages containing a white substance.

Preliminary testing of the substance returned a positive result for cocaine, the AFP will allege.

The men were taken into custody and were driven to the Bamaga Police Station before being flown on a Queensland Police Service jet to Cairns.

The cocaine haul allegedly found. Picture: Australian Federal Police

They are expected to appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The men, one from Yorke Island and the other from Moa Island, have been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

AFP Acting Commander Adrian Telfer said the Australian community suffered by the actions of criminal drug syndicates.

“Every time someone buys cocaine they are funding organised crime groups who are responsible for violence in Australia and around the world,” he said.

“This amount of cocaine has an estimated street value of $44 million.

“The AFP and our partners will not let organised crime turn the Pacific into an illicit drug superhighway, fuelling their own greed at the expense of the Australian community.”

Seisia is Queensland’s most northerly community and is a coastal town in the northern peninsula region.

It had a population of about 300 people in 2021 and is west of Bamaga.

Seisia has a harbour and is linked to Thursday Island by a ferry service.

In April this year, police arrested a man after 289kg of cocaine worth an estimated $94m was sent to Brisbane Airport from Papua New Guinea.

That same month, a Queensland man was charged over a botched 900kg cocaine import.

Three NSW men were also arrested in April after trying to import 500kg of cocaine – worth $162m – off the coast of Gladstone.

Originally published as $44m bust: Two charged over alleged far north 110kg coke haul