Police in the Australian state of Victoria have opened an investigation after they seized 540kg of liquid methamphetamine hidden among more than 9,000 canola oil bottles imported from Mexico.
The drugs, worth AU$80.7 million (US$62 million), were discovered concealed inside a shipment of thousands of canola oil bottles sent from Mexico to Melbourne, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The shipment arrived in Victoria on March 3 and police identified it as suspicious and seized the 9,360 bottles. Later tests confirmed that 269 of the bottles contained methamphetamine, more than half a ton in total, rather than canola oil.
The AFP says this is the second-largest haul of meth to be seized in Victorian history, after an operation last November found 560 kg of liquid methamphetamine worth AU$123 million (US$95 million). It was stashed inside a large consignment of mustard bottles flown from the US city of Chicago. Four alleged members of a transnational criminal syndicate were charged.
Also on rt.com One dead and 18 arrested after Indonesian police intercept US$82 million meth shipment from international smuggling ringThe AFP said the latest seizure was another example of the extreme lengths organized criminal groups were prepared to go to in order to import illicit substances into Australia. However, according to AFP Regional Commander Craig Palmer, the police possess sophisticated technology that enables them to find the drugs regardless of where they are concealed.
“If criminal organizations have thought of it, chances are, we have seen it,” he said in a statement published on the AFP’s website.
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