Australian law enforcement arrested six people on Friday after investigators in the United States intercepted nearly two tons of methamphetamine and other narcotics in Southern California that was intended to reach Australia, according to NBC News.
The discovery is believed to be the largest seizure of meth in U.S. history and displays an important link in the drug trafficking chain between Australia and Mexican cartels.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement which said the drugs were packed inside three containers and concealed in packages that claimed to be loudspeakers.
The shipment was intercepted at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport earlier this year in January.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Australian Federal Police arrested two U.S. citizens and four Australian citizens in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales related to the shipment.
Australian authorities said the charges included possession and attempted importation of a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs.
Officials also said search warrants were executed in Canada where police seized "a significant quantity of suspected proceeds of crime."
Jason Halls, the manager of Victoria operations for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, said the seizure was nearly 85 percent of all the meth consumed in Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, throughout a year.
Officials in both countries said it was the largest seizure of the drug in U.S. history since 3,800 pounds of methamphetamine would have an estimated street value of $1.3 billion Australian ($900 million U.S.) and nearly 55 pounds of cocaine and 11 pounds of heroin.
The seizure "will have a huge effect on the illicit drug market,” Halls said.
The Victorian Joint Organized Crime Task Force began "Operation Hoth" (named for the site of the rebel base in the "Star Wars" movies) started after Australian agents warned the Department of Homeland Security Investigations division about the plans for a large-scale importation of a drug smuggling group in California.
That investigation expanded to include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Coast Guard, Angeles, Long Beach and Los Angeles port police; and the Los Angeles and Orange County sheriff's departments.
"By stopping this, we have ensured criminals will not profit from the immense pain these drugs would have caused our community," said Bruce Hill, the Australian Federal Police's assistant commissioner for organized crime. “If this shipment had made Australian streets it equates to something like 17 million hits of ice. We have averted a tsunami of ice to Australia."
"This is a serious warning. We now believe that Mexican cartels are actively targeting Australia," Hill said.
Chief Superintendent Keith Finn, head of the Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, said the large seizure would likely put a dent in the meth market around the world.
"A seizure such as this not only helps protect the country to which the shipment was destined but has a positive impact on the international market as a whole," Finn said
AFP also said the investigation revealed cooperation between Mexican cartels and Australian biker gangs, which is how the drugs arrive in Australia.
"They have been sending smaller amounts over the years, this is now flagging their intent. Australia is now being targeted," Hill said.
"The cartel is one of the most powerful and violent drug trafficking syndicates in the world," he said but did not name the specific cartel involved.
Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations and gangs have long-looked-for new markets for their illicit products, which Australian police said was happily filled by the country's network of biker gangs.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Cliff Owen
