News

Biggest cocaine bust in Australian history sees 13 charged

The Australian Federal Police have arrested and charged 13 people off Queensland’s coast in what is described as the country’s largest-ever cocaine bust.

The AFP has charged eleven men and two teens in Queensland over an alleged conspiracy to import more than two tonnes of cocaine into the country by sea.

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The drugs have an estimated street value of 760 million dollars. That’s the equivalent of 11.7 million individual street deals. 

It happened on Saturday night when police tracked a recreational fishing boat that had travelled out to sea.

The boat allegedly met a mothership to collect the cocaine before breaking down off the coast of K’Gari, formerly known as Fraser Island.  

Two men were arrested on the vessel and another two waiting onshore to allegedly collect the drugs were also taken into custody along with nine others who are believed to have been part of the plot. 

All 13 were charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of drugs. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment. 

Police will allege one of the men arrested was the vice-president of the Brisbane chapter of the Comancheros. 

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Jade Murray

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