Three men have been charged over an alleged international conspiracy to supply an estimated $900 million worth of cocaine in NSW.
Police claim to have seized 1770kg of the illegal drug, a little more than half of the 3000kg alleged to have been part of a plot stretching from North and South America to Australia.
Yesterday morning, officers from the tactical and operations unit and the organised crime squad conducted a series of raids across Sydney and Lake Macquarie, in the Hunter.
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They arrested a 42-year-old Mortdale man, a 37-year-old Rockdale man and a 58-year-old, whose home suburb wasn't released.
Police allege the international investigation, carried out with the help of the United States Navy, Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Agency, was sparked by someone gambling a "significant amount of money" at a casino in early 2020.
That tip-off led to the commissioning of Strike Force Jillabenan and the alleged discovery of a "significant transnational organised crime syndicate" operating across Australia and North and South America, police said in a statement released early this morning.
The first major breakthrough came in October last year when the US Navy, acting on NSW police intelligence, allegedly seized 870kg of cocaine when they raided a vessel off the coast of Colombia.
The US Coast Guard then allegedly seized another 900kg of the drug from a vessel off the coast of Ecuador in April this year, before NSW investigators constructed a replica of the seized goods.
Police said they took the replica to a storage facility in Lake Macquarie, where tactical operations unit officers pounced on one of the alleged conspirators with the help of a police helicopter just after 8.30am yesterday.
They allege the 42-year-old man was trying to access the items.
The 37-year-old man was arrested in a nearby carpark and the 58-year-old during a series of raids carried out in Sydney shortly after.
During those searches — in Mortdale, Paddington, Regents Park, Rockdale and Sans Souci — police allegedly seized cash, electronic devices, documentation and several mobile phones.
The 42-year-old and 58-year-old were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply a prohibited drug on a large commercial scale, large commercial drug supply and participating in a criminal group. The 37-year-old was charged with large commercial drug supply. The older man also faces a second count of large commercial drug supply.
They're all due in court on today, the younger men in Newcastle Local Court and the older man in Parramatta Local Court.
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