Largest cocaine bust in Australia

Australian police seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine – the country’s biggest ever confiscation – from a hidden bunker beneath shipping containers at a property in Londonderry, western Sydney. The drugs, wrapped in plastic bags and hidden under false floors, carried an estimated street value of A$816 million (≈US$500 million).

The raid, called “Operation Minjiang,” began in May after 40 kg of cocaine was found floating off a boat ramp at Midge Point, a small town in North Queensland. Police say the cocaine was smuggled on orders of an organised crime group and arrived via that town.

Two men, aged 21 and 25, tried to flee the scene but were arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border‑controlled drug. They have been remanded and face potential life imprisonment if convicted.

The search followed earlier arrests in Queensland and New South Wales involving six other individuals linked to the same smuggling network. A suspected “mother vessel” used in the operation was seized in the Solomon Islands.

The Australian Federal Police said the operation highlights the highly organised nature of the drug syndicates and the extreme lengths they will go for profit, and that investigations into the drugs’ origin will continue in partnership with international law‑enforcement agencies.

Cocaine currently sells for about A$300 per gram in Australia – the highest per‑gram price worldwide – and Australians have the highest cocaine use rates in the world, according to the UN’s World Drug Report.