Australian police say they have busted a major drug ring after seizing a record haul of methamphetamine and heroin worth $526 million (500 million Australian dollars) that was stuffed into terra cotta pots.
More than 674 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 555 pounds of heroin were seized as part of an operation that began a year ago when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tipped off officials that an international crime syndicate was planning to import drugs to Australia. Police targeted two massive cargo containers containing 3,200 terra cotta pots coming from Thailand.
X-rays of the containers showed what was probably drugs heavily packed into 100 pots, officials said Tuesday in Australia.
The pots were sealed with a putty-like substance to conceal the drugs, officials said.
"The actual concealment itself wasn't particularly sophisticated: terra cotta pots concealed in bulk on pallets within cardboard boxes and then shrink-wrapped," said Mike Pezzullo of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.
Officials from the two investigating agencies in Australia said it was the largest seizure of methamphetamine in the country's history and the third largest of heroin.
Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner of Operations Andrew Colvin said that through the course of the investigation, authorities kept close watch on suspects as they tracked the shipment.
Four suspects from Hong Kong and three Australians were arrested as part of the operation, the Australian Federal Police and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service announced. The men face a maximum penalty of life in prison on charges of possession or attempting to possess commercial quantities of methamphetamine or heroin.
“This operation follows the AFP’s most successful year in terms of drug seizures," Colvin said in a news release. “In the 2011/12 financial year, the AFP and its partner agencies seized almost 14 tons of illicit substances bound for drug distribution networks across Australia."
Colvin said that was in large part due to the collaboration between international intelligence groups.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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ban cigarettes, ban alcohol, ban fatty foods, ban sugar, ban anything that is bad for you. That'll teach 'em
Way to inflate the numbers to promote the "success" of the drug war. Half a billion dollars.. that's almost a thousand dollars a gram. You can get dope in a super-max prison a lot cheaper than that.
Sorry, decimal error.. that should be almost a hundred thousand dollars a gram.
Dear Police, I thank you for the job you do. You deserve more thanks than you get. But please stop confiscating private property. Please stop jailing adults for their consumption choices and distribution methods. I will stand beside you in efforts of justice when harm is caused to individuals by other individuals – but let us not mistake actual harm for the potential for harm. If this were the case autos would be made illegal. Dear Irresponsible drug users, please get help. Now. I certainly wouldn't force you to change but for your sake and for the sake of those in your life stop abusing substances. Dear Responsible Drug User, toke on. You are a valuable member of society. You hold a job, you don't steal to feed what may or may not be an addiction. You aren't causing direct harm to others – especially if you grow or produce your own drug of choice. Dear Abstaining Citizen, i support your choice in drug free life style. Please continue on in the good life and try to remember that not all who use drugs are bad people. Drugs themselves are non-moral, substantively the equivilant of a chemistry lab. We're all in this together, be good one to another.
well said.
your right drugs are mostly used by well to do christian people.
@ Wayne, i'll offer two responses to your comment since i think it could easily be read two different ways. First, if your comment is bereft of sarcasm i would like to disagree with your sentiment. I don't think drug use is constrained to any portion of the population, i know users from every demographic. and it should be clarified, if yours is not a sarcstic comment, that you mean illegal drugs. nearly all people use drugs of some sort, either prescribed, legal or illegal. Second, if yours is a sarcastic comment, which i am pretty sure it is, i can only offer my agreement. I know full well that many drug users are not contributing in a worth while manner to society at large. However true that statement may be, my conviction still stands: restricting liberty to try to limit its abuse is tyrranical. Compulsory goodness is no goodness at all. The current drug policies held in most nations might provide us with some amount of limited security but these laws undermine the principle of non-harmful self determination. There shouldn't be any restrictions on personal liberty when direct harm is not evident.
Millions of U.S. dollars have been seized in drug bust and nobody ever talks about what happens to those U.S. dollars anymore but they are always happy to show how they destroy the drugs.
The guy who shot up the colorado theatre was straight laced & had no criminal record and didnt do drugs
Maybe he should have done some drugs.... then he might have just committed suicide instead. Some of that A.D.D. stuff
Maybe he took some of his own stuff that he was working on in the lab at school. While studying for his PhD in neuroscience......
what does that have to do with anything?
He listened to Rush Limbaugh every day.
I fear that this might be traced back to Heisenberg . . .
for sure.
be certain?
Priceless. I love that show!
Funny how they never discuss their valuation methods. It seems like they just pull a number out of the air that sounds about right for the effect they're trying to achieve.
Just because drugs are illegal, doesn't mean they don't have a market price. They typically use "street value" which means its not the cost to produce the drugs but the final price that would have been paid for all the drugs seized had they made it to the street for sale. I wish there was a "like" button for this article – meth is nasty stuff and people would be better without it. Alternatively, if society were no longer responsible for the health care of idiots, I'd say give em all the meth they want til their brains explode and problem solved ...
YES! YES! I just raised the price of my Meth and Smack across the board here down under.. Thanks DEA, you just made me more money mo money mo money..
I really think prison is to good for these i di ots. How about death? That's my choice. Don't bust em, dust em.
500 million dollars! im in the wrong business...
seriously. with this kind of money in a single shipment (even after inflation for headlines) how could any civilized country expect to stop the flow of drugs?
I'm just sick of all these pro-drug legalization advocates talking about the savings of legalizing drugs. HufPo had an article recently talking about how drugs need to be legalized to end the AIDs epidemic in the US. They want drugs legalized and social programs to help druggies kick their habits. Yeah- that's going to save money. Replace police officer and prison guards with social workers and psychologists. If someone wants to mess up their bodies and OD on heroin or destroy their lives with meth- go ahead. Just don't expect tax dollars for your stupid decisions. There's a big "Heroin Kills" campaign where I live. Like people need to be told that Heroin is dangerous.
Marijuana needs to be legal
They will not legalize drugs....
It would put drug companies, pharmacies, and doctors out of business.... and Rush too!
The only legalization talks in the US are for marijuana. And even those talks hit a brick wall every time they begin. There is no truth to legalizing dugs like meth and heroin, that is just absurd. Americans, especially the republican machine, will not allow such drugs to be added to supermarket shelves next to Tylenol and Asprin. Though the battle for the legalization of marijuana is being fought on many political fronts in the US the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose such legislation.
It will become," over the counter" when insurance companies have to start paying too much for the prescriptions ......
Everyone knows how many lives are taken each year by alcohol, why is it sold everywhere?
It will never happen. There are already millions of idiots who think that they can drive while using a cell phone. Imagine how many more dumb F's there would be if drugs were legalized. They would be driving while texting, talking, and high.
Please, Heisenberg cooks that much in a week.
I don't care if they are exaggerating the numbers... still a lot of drugs off the streets.
I would second death penalty for these dealers. D.E.A! D.E.A! D.E.A!
it's funny to see all the hatred from the left on here. a steady stream of attacks on anything conservative or traditional or republican. and this story isn't even about U.S. politics.
the democrats claim they are inclusive. Yet they spew hate at anyone who doesn't agree with their viewpoints. what a bunch of hypocrites and losers! shame on the left and their cowardly ways!
haha
I am proud to be a "leftie" and I will criticize the right any chance I get. For too long liberals have taken cr@p from the conservatives, who think being a Republican is a religion. So we speak out now and we are the source of every problem the right can think of, when they are able to think.
weed used to be legal before some racist didn't like the south smoking it, made up fake ads against it and got the government to sign off. check the history.
You can't stop folks from doing drugs..you can't stop all the reaons people do drugs in the first place ...but you can clean up the iindustry–maybe even get REAL help for the addicts and take away the organized crime that makes it 10 x worse...this "war on drugs" is the biggest load of cr@p ever...there are more drugs than ever on the street–better grade and cheaper–and kids are starting younger– WE ARE GOING BACKWARDS- you can't stop the flow–perhaps we should try a different angle...most folks who have done a lot of drugs will tell you that eventually they realize what a waste of time it all was–but the buyers never dry up–the dealers find a new crop of curious kids every day....and those kids become addicted adults who wil do ANYTHING for a fix.. we need a serious plan– not just wasting money on the same old BS that will NEVER work....we need to grow up and face the drug issue head on...start by legalizing it and then bring it all out in the open-shine the light–bring it up from the underground–tell addicts it's okay to come in from out there in ther dark...believe me i've known too many friends who are dead from not coming in ...
Viva Los Pollos Hermanos!!