Yousif Al-Asadi and Rayn Sadik plead guilty in SA’s second biggest cocaine bust, 139kg seized

Two Victorian men charged over the second biggest cocaine bust in South Australian history have confessed to their crimes after nearly 140kg of the drug was found inside luxury buses.

The two men charged over South Australia’s second biggest cocaine bust on record have admitted they tried to import the drug after Border Force officers found a huge haul of cocaine on a luxury bus.

In January, Australian Border Force officers intercepted a ship bound for South Australia from Singapore after receiving intelligence relating to a transnational crime syndicate.

Four luxury buses on the ship were searched by Border Force maritime officers who found suspicious packages. Those packages held 139kg of cocaine – leading to SA’s second largest bust in history.

The buses were searched after arriving in Perth’s Fremantle Harbour on January 28, with ABF officers locating a number of packages in four of the buses, which later tested positive for cocaine.

A 139kg cocaine cache seized from luxury buses in Adelaide as part of AFP Operation Silkwood.

The packages were then switched by Australian Federal Police officers for ones with fake substances.

Police tracked the buses as they were unloaded in Adelaide and delivered to a suburban car park in Mansfield Park on February 3.

Two Victorian men – later revealed as Yousif Al-Asadi, 20, and Rayn Sadik, 23 – then broke into the carpark to collect what they, according to police, thought was the real cocaine, and took it to a hotel where officers pounced on the duo.

They were both charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, and remanded in custody.

Both men have pleaded guilty. Picture: Australian Federal Police

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning, Al-Asadi told Magistrate John Wells he would confess to the crime, with Sadik also having pleaded guilty in July.

The two will remain in custody ahead of their first appearance in the South Australian District Court next month where a date will be set for sentencing submissions.

After the bust, ABF officers said the seizure stopped a potential 695,000 individual deals from hitting the streets, with a total estimated street value of $45m.

Australian Border Force Chief Superintendent Bart England said the concealment inside a shipment of luxury buses in February 2024 was a brazen attempt to bring a significant amount of cocaine onto the streets on South Australia, and ABF officers played a crucial role in the operation that led to the arrests.

“We continue to see criminal networks target Australian ports with illicit importations and the ABF is working side-by-side its law enforcement partners to make the Australian border a hostile environment for any criminal activity.”

“We are relentless in our pursuit of anyone trying to bring poisons like cocaine into our communities.”

Originally published as Yousif Al-Asadi and Rayn Sadik plead guilty in SA’s second biggest cocaine bust, 139kg seized