Up to a tonne of cocaine worth almost a quarter of a billion dollars has been seized and three men charged after Australian authorities intercepted a “drug-filled” boat off the NSW coast.
The Coralynne was secured near Newcastle on Aug. 15 during a daring joint operation by Australian Federal Police, NSW Police and Australian Border Force officers after a tip-off from New Zealand authorities.
Border force officials boarded the trawler, which was on fire, about 150 nautical miles off the coast in 3.5 metre seas, arrested three crew and towed the cocaine-filled trawler back to Sydney’s Balmain.
ABF NSW Commander Danielle Yannopoulos says it’s probably the country’s biggest cocaine bust in three years.
“Just to give you a bit of an idea, the ABF seized about 760 kilos of cocaine last financial year,” she said on Aug. 18.
“This is likely to be the biggest cocaine detection since 2017.”
Authorities are working out exactly much cocaine was seized but believe it could be up to a tonne.
“If we work on the basis that it’s a couple of hundred kilos, up to one tonne, then the street value is between $100 million and $250 million,” AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough told reporters.
NZ intelligence reported the boat to Australian authorities on Aug. 11, after it was tracked in a stretch of ocean not usually visited by trawlers.
Australian intelligence officers then observed the boat meeting a “mother ship” when, they will allege, the drugs were transferred.
It’s believed the bigger vessel could have come from South America.
The men arrested on the Coralynne—two Australians aged 27 and 32 and a 40-year-old Hong Kong man—appeared in Sydney’s Central Local Court on Monday and were refused bail.
NSW Police State Crime Commander Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said the need to mitigate the spread of coronavirus added another layer of difficulty to the operation.
“A lot of this product comes from countries that are at risk, and are dealing with the risk of COVID-19,” he said.
“We go through this profile of how are we going to deal with it and then, obviously, all the staff are briefed.”
Investigations are continuing.
