Australian police have seized a record 3 tons of cocaine buried in underground bunkers near Sydney. The haul is the largest in the country's history and was uncovered in a joint operation targeting organized crime. Two men were arrested at the scene while six others had been detained earlier.
Police discovered the drugs on Friday in plastic tubs hidden under false floors at a property in Londonderry, a semi-rural suburb northwest of Sydney. Detectives said the cocaine had been offloaded from a foreign vessel in northern Queensland before being moved south for distribution.
Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay stated that the drugs would have fetched more than Aus$800 million on the street. He noted that investigations into the origin of the shipment are ongoing and will involve international partners.
Officers also detained the MV Wealth, suspected to be the mother vessel, in the Solomon Islands. Two men aged 21 and 25 were charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported drug, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The seizure follows several other major drug busts in Australia over the past year, including a 2.3-ton find in December 2024.