A New South Wales man is facing the prospect of life imprisonment after being caught attempting to import 99 kilograms of methamphetamine, with a street value estimated at $91 million, into Australia.
The 39-year-old appeared in court on March 28.
The investigation began last October, when Australian Border Force (ABF) examiners intercepted a suspicious shipment that arrived in Sydney from China.
Authorities detected the drug hidden inside four boxes labelled “universal transmission gears.”
When testing confirmed it was methamphetamine, it was removed and replaced with an inert substance, and the consignment was then delivered to a self-storage facility in Girraween in western Sydney.
In early January, surveillance footage captured two men entering the storage unit, one of whom was the arrested man, allegedly handling the drug-laden boxes.
Police later raided his home and seized items including a mobile phone, cash, a replica firearm, prohibited weapons, and suspected drugs.
He has been charged with one count of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, while the second man will not face charges.
The methamphetamine seized in this operation is part of a much larger international trade. AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Fogarty highlighted that the 99 kilograms of meth equates to about 990,000 street-level deals.
“Methamphetamine is a devastating drug, and the harm it causes extends beyond the user to impact their loved ones and the wider community,” Fogarty said.
“Criminals will stop at nothing to import harmful drugs into Australia to fill their pockets, and are indifferent to the harm they cause.”
This arrest underscores the crucial role international syndicates, particularly Chinese triads and Mexican cartels, play in trafficking synthetic drugs to Australia.
According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, Australia remains one of the world’s most lucrative consumer markets for drugs, with Chinese-controlled precursors from Myanmar continuing to flood the market.
From the 1990s, methamphetamines produced in southern China were commonly trafficked to Australia.
“Then, a 2015 counter-narcotics agreement between Canberra and Beijing was able to put a dent in this trade,” the report said.
While this initially slowed the flow of meth from China, traffickers have increasingly turned to Myanmar for the chemicals used in meth production. These drugs are then shipped to Australia by well-organised Chinese syndicates.
“Chinese precursors (chemicals used in the manufacture of drugs) trafficked from Myanmar have since been used to produce methamphetamines, which are exported by triads to Australia and New Zealand,” the report concluded.
In the 2023/24 financial year, countries like Myanmar, Fiji, Colombia, and Mexico were responsible for some of the largest seizures of illicit drugs bound for Australia, including 20,561 kg from Myanmar, 4,270 kg from Fiji, and 3,957 kg from Mexico.
AFP efforts to curb this trade are ongoing, with recent reports revealing that it had helped prevent more than 39 tonnes of illicit drugs from reaching global markets last year.
This includes more than 24 tonnes of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine targeted for Australia.
