Police have seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine worth $816 million dollars from underground bunkers in Sydney’s west, Australia’s largest-ever seizure of the drug.
Two Samoan men, Andrew Whata Fepulaei, 21, from Plumpton, and Kristian Faiumu, 25, from Liverpool, were arrested while allegedly trying to flee on foot when investigators raided a semi-rural property in Londonderry on Friday.
Police then searched three shipping containers near the rear of the property and allegedly found the cocaine buried in plastic tubs in bunkers hidden under false floors.
The Australian Federal Police said on Monday the search warrant was carried out as part of an investigation into an organised crime syndicate importing and distributing large quantities of drugs across Australia’s east coast, and that the haul had a street value of $816 million.
Police will allege the cocaine seized at Londonderry was shipped into the country near Midge Point in North Queensland and moved to the Londonderry property by a Sydney-based gang, and said investigations into the syndicate were continuing.
Their investigation, named Operation Minjiang, began in May when a burnt-out flatbed truck was found at a boat ramp and 40kg floating in the water nearby.
The truck’s owner, a 41-year-old man from Mackay, was identified, and a series of search warrants were executed across Queensland and Sydney last week, resulting in six people being arrested and charged.
The cocaine was allegedly brought into Australia by a mother vessel called the MV Wealth, which has since been detained in the Solomon Islands.
Fepulaei and Faiumu are facing life imprisonment after being charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.
Both appeared in the NSW Local Court on Friday where Fepulaei did not apply for bail, and Faiumu had bail refused after the court heard he had a brain injury caused by a car accident, The Daily Telegraph reported.
They will appear in court again on August 13.
Those arrested last week include a Petrie man, 32, charged with possessing a dangerous drug and dealing with proceeds of crime, a Petrie woman, 32, charged with one count of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, and a Green Valley man, 24.
Header image: Left, right, one of the arrests and the drugs seized (AFP).
