Australian police make a record bust of cocaine

Australian law enforcement and border patrol on Monday said they seized more than two tons of cocaine and arrested 13 individuals who conspired to bring the drugs into the country. The seizure of cocaine was the largest ever in the country and was worth roughly $760 million, police said. It would have supplied roughly 11.7 million drug deals, authorities said.

Who were the individuals involved? Authorities were prepared to show at trial that one of the 11 adults facing charges was the vice president of the Brisbane chapter of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club. Two of the individuals were minors, authorities said. The Australian Federal Police only began an investigation into the cocaine shipment after receiving reports that the Comanchero gang was conspiring to bring a bunch of illegal drugs into the country, authorities said.

How did the drug bust go down? Authorities intercepted a fishing boat off the coast of the island of K’gari. They arrested two men on board and discovered 51 bales of cocaine on the boat. Authorities then arrested two other men waiting for the shipment onshore. Authorities simultaneously rounded up the remaining individuals at residences, fast food restaurants, and during traffic stops in the country’s Brisbane and Bundaberg areas in the state of Queensland.

Didn’t I read something recently about narcotics submarines? Last week, Colombian Navy officials told reporters about numerous seizures of drugs—totaling nearly 250 tons of cocaine—that had been seized as part of a weeks-long, international crackdown called Operation Orion. One of the many vessels seized in that operation was a semi-submersible craft carrying 5 tons of cocaine from South America to Australia, according to the Colombian Navy. 

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report about how U.S. authorities recently seized roughly $18 million in fake acoustic guitars.