The largest cocaine bust in Australia’s history is alleged to have involved four Logan men.
It was a massive haul for police, who will allege they intercepted $760 million of cocaine from a boat off the coast of K’gari
Eleven men and two children were charged in relation to the 2.34-tonne bust.
Among those arrested were four men from Eden’s Landing, Heritage Park and Slacks Creek.
This is the largest ever seizure of cocaine in Australia, according to the AFP, potentially equating to around 11.7 million individual street deals.
“The men, including the crew of a vessel allegedly attempting to import the illicit drugs into Queensland and multiple parties waiting on shore to collect the cocaine, were arrested on Saturday (30 November, 2024) night and in the early hours of yesterday (Sunday, 1 December, 2024),” the AFP said in a statement.
“The AFP will allege one of the men arrested on Saturday night was the vice-president of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club’s Brisbane chapter.”
An investigation by the AFP, Queensland Police Service and Australian Border Force (ABF) into the alleged importation plans began last month.
In the past week, these investigations came to a head once police began tracking a recreational fishing boat as it travelled to sea from the Queensland coastline, where it allegedly “met a mothership to collect the cocaine” before returning.
But the fishing boat became stranded about 18km off the northeastern tip of K’gari due to a suspected mechanical breakdown on Saturday, the AFP said.
Police officers boarded the stranded boat and allegedly found 51 bales with roped netting around them.
Each bale contained about 40kg of a white substance packaged in individual 1kg blocks.
The white substance was then tested and returned a positive result for cocaine, with a further test needed to determine the exact weight and purity of the alleged cocaine.
Two men, aged 35 and 57 were arrested on board.
The stricken vessel was then towed by QPS Water Police to a marina in Hervey Bay.
Three men aged 20, 22 and 28 were arrested at a fast food restaurant in Bundaberg East with three more men aged 20, 28, 34, and two juveniles arrested two hours later following a traffic stop.
A 51 year old male was also arrested in Victoria Point following a search warrant of his property.
The eleven men and two juveniles were all charged with one count of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs.
The maximum penalty for that charge is life imprisonment.
AFP Commander Stephen Jay said the AFP was alert to transnational organised crime syndicates (TSOC) attempting to import drugs into Australia via ‘motherships and daughterships’.
“We know that 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,” Commander Jay said.
“I would like to thank the exceptional work of our AFP investigators, together with our QPS and law enforcement counterparts, who have together prevented a significant amount of illicit drugs from hitting our community, right before Christmas.”
