March 4 () –
The Australian Police in collaboration with the United States has frustrated an operation to introduce 2.4 tons of cocaine into the country from Mexico, a drug that could have reached a value of 1,000 million Australian dollars, some 635 million euros.
The covert operation known as Operation Beech –Operation Haya– has had the collaboration of the US authorities and has led to the arrest of twelve suspects, according to Australian television ABC.
The Western Australia Police Commissioner, Col Blanch, explained that the operation lasted six weeks in which significant means of surveillance have been deployed.
“It was an opportunity to apprehend this mafia group capable of receiving and bringing the drug and then distributing it throughout Australia,” the police spokesman explained.
The US authorities intercepted the drug in November in waters near South America, but everything indicated that the Australian traffickers did not notice and expected the shipment around December 28. The details of the operation have not been disclosed so far.
Australian police dropped identical bales of fake cocaine about 40 miles west of Perth. The traffickers searched for the drug for several days using two boats and finally located it.
On December 30, special operations agents arrested three men aboard a boat with 1.2 tons of fake cocaine off the coast, about 70 kilometers from Perth. The other nine suspects were detained at various points in Perth, including various hotels, and more than A$2 million in a car was seized.
