Single tip-off leads Australian police to record methamphetamine seizure
This picture taken last July shows a previous drug seizure by the Australian Federal Police. Ceramic vases were used to conceal $525 million worth of methamphetamine and heroin.
One phone call from an anonymous source led to Australia’s biggest ever seizure of methamphetamine, police announced Thursday.
After a five-month investigation, federal and state police confiscated more than half a ton of the drug known as “ice,” with an estimated street value of $448 million, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
It is more than double the previous record haul in July last year, Al Jazeera reported, citing a police statement.
''That one phone call was the one thread that allowed us to pull and unravel a syndicate that will be stopped forever," NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione told reporters.
''A member of the public had seen that things weren't right at a particular location at a commercial premises and contacted the police."
The drug had been disguised as cleaning chemicals in a shipment from southern China, Al Jazeera said.
The Associated Press said three men had been charged with “attempting to possess the drug” and faced life sentences if convicted.
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