Federal police say they have thwarted a $760 million cocaine smuggling operation by a bikie club, with a gang leader among 13 people charged.
Brisbane’s chapter of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang were behind the biggest ever plan to import cocaine in the country, Australian Federal Police allege.
But the operation was foiled after law enforcement agencies intercepted the handover of the drugs from the mother ship to the daughter vessel near K’gari (formerly Fraser Island) on Saturday night.
Police received intelligence in November the bikie gang planned to import a multi-tonne amount of drugs and began tracking their movements.
The syndicate allegedly bought a boat which broke down, leading to the purchase of a second recreational vessel for $150,000 last week.
The second boat travelled out to sea on Saturday allegedly to collect drugs from a mother ship 460km off the Queensland coast in international waters.
On the way back to the Queensland coastline it broke down and became stranded near K’gari for several hours.
“I don’t think we expected the vessel breakdown and they certainly didn’t,” AFP commander Stephen Jay told reporters.
This is when law enforcement agencies quickly changed plans and swooped on the boat stranded at sea.
Two men were arrested at sea and two on land where members of the group were waiting to collect the drugs.
“It was good work and there was perhaps a degree of good luck that it all played out the way the timing did,” Commander Jay said.
Officers found 51 bales on the boat that contained 40kg of white substance packaged in individual 1kg blocks.
It totalled 2.34 tonnes of cocaine estimated to be worth $760 million or 11.7 million individual street deals.
Police arrested three men at a fast food restaurant in Hervey Bay linked to the conspiracy and three more men and two youths during a traffic stop in Bundaberg East.
Officers searched a house at Victoria Point, east of Brisbane, and arrested a 51-year-old man linked to the drug importation plot.
“He’s very much part of the organising group of this importation,” Commander Jay said.
Police allege two of the men arrested in Bundaberg were patched members of the Comancheros with one of the arrests the vice president of the Brisbane chapter of the Comancheros.
The two men on the boat were working on behalf of the bikie gang, Commander Jay said.
Commander Jay believed the cocaine originated in South America with investigations continuing into the source.
Law enforcement agencies are still investigating the mothership, Commander Jay said.
It was the largest cocaine bust in Australia’s history, nearly double previous hauls of one tonne, he said.
Authorities expect the major seizure to impact the drug trade within Australia and may lead to higher street prices.
“There’ll be others who will see and will consider or contemplate doing something similar to what the syndicate we allege have attempted to do here,” Mr Jay said.
“The message to those who would be contemplating is to reconsider because the chance of being apprehended has never been higher.”
The 11 men and two juveniles have been charged with one count of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
They will face the Maryborough, Bundaberg and Cleveland Magistrates Courts on Monday.
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