AFP and Victorian Police officers seize 903 kilograms of ice
Australian authorities have made the country’s largest seizure of the drug ice.
The record 903-kilogram haul was made during a joint operation of Australian Federal Police and Victorian officers.
They say it is worth an estimated $900 million.
Two men have been arrested over the haul, most of which was found hidden inside timber floorboards at a factory in Nunawading in Melbourne’s east.
A 53-year-old Blackburn man and a 36-year-old Doncaster man have been charged with trafficking in a commercial quantity of illegal narcotics.
Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana says police are looking for two Asian men in their 30s wanted for questioning, and are also trying to trace a white Nissan Coupe.
903kg of ice with a street value around $900 million seized by Victorian and Federal Police. Hidden in floorboards.@3AW693 pic.twitter.com/mFzoodeVi9
? Alicia Byrne (@AliciaB22) April 4, 2017
Footage from Federal Police shows officers going through the boxes, and pulling boards apart.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan, the National Manager of Organised Crime and Cyber at the Australian Federal Police, told Neil Mitchell ice was the current drug of choice.
‘We can deal quite heavily with this supply issue, but the demand issue is a greater threat to all of us,’ he said.
‘We need to do something more collectively in relation to demand.
‘Our demand is having people bring the drugs to Australia.’
Dr John Coyne, the Director of the Border Security program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said Australians are high per capita users of drugs.
He told Neil Mitchell it was a ‘real cultural issue.’
‘We have a taste in Australia for ice…because we can afford it,’ he said.
Sly of the Underworld told 3AW Breakfast the latest haul show’s Melbourne is awash with drugs and the appetite for it is unprecedented.
‘It simply proves even more, you cannot defeat this by simply dealing with supply,’ he said.
‘We have to get a proper structure to deal with demand, as long as people want it, it will be supplied.’