Record stash of cocaine found buried underground in Australia

Australian police seized a record 3 tons of cocaine hidden in plastic tubs buried underground on the outskirts of Sydney, detectives said Monday.

It was the largest cocaine haul in Australian history, a joint organized crime investigation force said in a statement.

Police allege a Sydney-based organized crime group arranged for a foreign vessel to offload the cocaine in northern Queensland before moving it to Sydney for distribution.

“Investigations into the origin of the drugs remain ongoing, and we will work with our international and domestic law enforcement partners to identify the criminal syndicates,”  Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said.

The cocaine would have been worth more than Aus$800 ($560 million) in street sales — money that “won’t make it into the pockets of organized crime,” he told a news conference.

Police released multiple images of the bust, showing the dugs concealed in large containers as well as officers collecting evidence and detaining a suspect.

“We know criminals go to extreme lengths, and often risk their own lives, to smuggle drugs into Australia with no regard to the harm they cause to Australian communities,” Jay said.  

An alleged mother vessel suspected to be part of the illicit drug importation into Queensland, the MV Wealth, has been detained by authorities in the Solomon Islands for further investigation, police said.  

Pacific Island states have become a transit point for lucrative black market cocaine and methamphetamine shipments to Australia and New Zealand from as far as South America and Southeast Asia.

“Criminals don’t care about borders, and they exploit our oceans to traffic drugs,” police said in a post on social media.

Police discovered the cocaine on Friday in plastic tubs buried in underground bunkers that were concealed by false floors.

It was found at the back of a property in Londonderry, a semi-rural northwestern suburb of greater Sydney.

Officers arrested two men aged 21 and 25 who allegedly tried to run away.

Each of the men was charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported drug — an offense that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Six others allegedly involved in the importation of the cocaine had previously been arrested and charged with offences related to illicit drugs possession, police said. One of them, a 31-year-old woman, allegedly lived at a suspected safehouse connected to the operation and was complicit in the storage of the drugs.

Cocaine-related deaths in Australia surged 28 percent to a record 141 in 2024, according to an annual report on overdoses released this month by the Penington Institute, which researches drug use.

The cocaine seizure follows a string of other major drug busts in Australia.

Last September, three dockworkers were arrested after more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine were found hidden behind a false wall in a shipping container on the Sydney waterfront. That same month, Australian police said they had busted a drug trafficking ring dubbed “The Commission” that brought more than a ton of cocaine into the country in just a few months. In December 2024, Australian police seized 2.3 tons of cocaine and arrested 13 people in raids after a fishing boat broke down off the coast of Queensland.

The bust also marks the second underground drug operation uncovered this month. In early June, U.S. authorities announced the discovery of an elaborate 2,000-foot-long drug tunnel between border cities in Mexico and California, complete with electricity, reinforced walls, ventilation and a rail system.