Police in Australia have seized a record 2.3 tonnes (2,300kg) of cocaine from a motorcycle gang’s fishing boat that broke down off the coast of Queensland.
The haul, worth around $760m Australian dollars (£388m), was being smuggled by the Comancheros biker gang, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commander Stephen Jay said.
Detectives had been investigating the gang since last month after getting a tip-off that they were planning a multi-tonne smuggling operation.
In the past week, the AFP said it worked with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) to monitor a recreational fishing boat, recently bought by a 35-year-old man.
The vessel sailed out sea where it allegedly met a mothership to collect the cocaine, before returning towards the Queensland coastline.
When the fishing boat became stranded about 11 miles (18km) off the northeastern tip of K’gari due to a suspected mechanical breakdown on Saturday, the AFP and QPS made multiple arrests at sea, in the Bundaberg region and Brisbane.
Thirteen Australian citizens were arrested, some on the boat, some who were waiting for the delivery on shore, and others in the Bundaberg region and Brisbane.
Two were aged under 18 and one was the vice president of the Comanchero’s Brisbane chapter, police said.
Originating in an unidentified South American country, the seizure translated to around 11.7 million street deals.
The gang tried to bring the cocaine ashore twice from a mothership floating hundreds of miles offshore, Mr Jay told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
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Their first boat broke down, and on Saturday, the second followed suit, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until police raided the fishing boat and seized the drugs, he said.
The mothership was in international waters and was not taken, Mr Jay said.
Authorities have seized more than one tonne of cocaine before, Mr Jay said, but the weekend’s take was the biggest ever recorded in Australia.
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The accused are charged with conspiracy to import the drug into Australia by sea and, if convicted, could be jailed for life.
They were due to appear in court on Monday.
“Australia is a very attractive market for organised criminal groups to send drugs such as cocaine,” Mr Jay added.
