The unnamed drug traffickers now face several years of hard time for their attempts to smuggle AUD$184 million (US$125 million) worth of meth into Sydney from Hong Kong.
They sought to disguise their load as a simple excavator, a heavy-duty machine used in major construction, demolition, and excavation projects. The narcotics themselves were concealed within layers of concrete, steel and lead in a failed effort to avoid detection by customs officials, police said.
Power tools were used to cut into the machine so the drugs could be stashed within. Had they reached the streets of Sydney, they could have supplied just under three million users, the AFP said.
“Criminals will continue to find crafty ways to get harmful drugs into Australia, said AFP Detective Superintendent Kristie Cressy, “but that won’t stop the AFP from putting them behind bars.”
One of the traffickers, who lives in Merrylands, received a nine-year sentence with a non-parole period of six years. Another man from Prospect is set to serve seven years and two months in prison and will not be eligible for parole for four years, while the third trafficker was sentenced to six years and nine months with non-parole period of three years and nine months.
“Our officers continue to prove, time and time again, that criminals who attempt to conceal these substances will be caught,” said ABF Commander Susan Drennan at the time of the suspects’ arrest. We have the technological capability to detect these drugs and other illicit goods no matter how well they are concealed, and our officers can see further into these types of shipments than ever before.”
Federal police prevented roughly 1.8 tonnes of narcotics from reaching the streets of Australia in 2023, including a seizure back in June of six tonnes of liquid methamphetamine, hidden in canola oil, that would have netted traffickers $1.7 billion (US$1.17 billion).
