Australian Police Find Record 2.7 Metric Tons of Cocaine on Sydney Property

Australian police uncovered 2.7 metric tons of cocaine on a semi-rural property in the Sydney suburb of Londonderry on June 19. The drugs were hidden in plastic tubs inside underground bunkers beneath three shipping containers with false floors. The seizure is the largest cocaine haul on record in Australia.

The Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce estimated its street value at 816 million Australian dollars. Two Sydney men aged 21 and 25 were arrested at the site and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an illicit drug. They appeared before a New South Wales local court on June 20, were remanded in custody, and have a next court date of August 13 at Penrith local court.

The cocaine had been landed by boat at Midge Point on Queensland's Whitsunday Coast. A Sydney organized crime group then transported it 1,800 kilometers by road to Londonderry. Police suspect the shipment originated from the same vessel as an earlier 178-kilogram cocaine seizure in Queensland and a 142-kilogram methamphetamine seizure that led to six additional charges.

Authorities identified the suspected mother ship as the Belize-flagged MV Wealth, which has been detained in the Solomon Islands on transnational organized crime suspicions. The seizure formed part of Operation Minjiang, a joint effort by the Australian Federal Police, Queensland Police, and the Australian Border Force that began after 40 kilograms of cocaine were found in the water off a Midge Point boat ramp.

Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay said organized crime groups were increasingly targeting Queensland's 13,000-kilometer coastline to smuggle drugs.

The previous national record was 2.34 metric tons seized from a fishing boat near K'gari in 2024.