The Australian Federal Police has made a massive drug bust in Sydney, seizing more than 1 tonne of MDMA tablets worth and estimated $145 million.
Border Force Commander Tim Fitzgerald said the drugs -- found in a raid in Hornsby -- came in from Czechoslovakia and were discovered at a storage facility.
"The goods were declared as aluminium rolls and within the aluminium rolls there was a number of lead casings that concealed the actual narcotics themselves, so it's a very sophisticated concealment," Fitzgerald said on Saturday.
Tonne of MDMA, worth $145 million, seized in Sydney in AFP drug raid @abcnews https://t.co/qqtpYMFI7x
— ABC News Sydney (@abcnewsSydney) October 15, 2016
The raid, labelled a "hammer blow" for organised crime by Justice Minister Michael Keenan, was part of a combined operation with the Australian Border Force.
Two Polish nationals have been arrested and will face court on Saturday over the huge seizure, with authorities confident of more arrests.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Operations Justine Saunders said the haul represented Australia's biggest drug bust for 2016, and the fourth biggest in the nation's history.
"The size of this seizure and the amount of potential harm cannot be understated. It shows the lengths to which criminal syndicates will go to profit off the misery of others -- while there is demand for illicit substances, criminals will attempt to supply it," Saunders told Yahoo7.
LIVE on #Periscope: We're in #Sydney talking about a 1.2-tonne MDMA (ecstasy) haul. Two men have been charged. #Aus... https://t.co/9U6KzufmbB
— AFP National Media (@AFPmedia) October 15, 2016