Eight men have been charged after the biggest methamphetamine haul in Australian history was seized on a boat intercepted off the West Australian coast near Geraldton.
Australia Federal Police have seized a record haul of methamphetamine. Photo: Australia Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police and its WA Joint Organised Crime Task Force intercepted the boat Valkoista, which was carrying 1.2 tonnes of the drug, 400 kilometres north of Perth about 4:00am yesterday.
Police say the drugs are worth more than $1 billion.
The operation was conducted as part of a national police operation targeting the trafficking of the drug - commonly known as ice - into Australia.
Onlookers yesterday witnessed officers removing a number of sealed packages from the vessel at the Geraldton marina.
Police seized a record meth haul in Western Australia. Photo: Australian Federal Police
Six of the men, aged between 33 and 52, were charged with possessing commercial quantities of border-controlled drugs suspected of being unlawfully imported.
Patrick Leandro and Chrstios Cafcakis, from South Australia, and Sliwa Waseem Hermiz, Elia Khalid Keana, Anthony Serupepeli Rasaubale and Joshua Joseph Smith, from New South Wales, have made a brief appearance at the Geraldton Magistrates Court.
Two other men, who have not yet been named, have also been arrested in connection to the operation.
It's the second time in as many years authorities have intercepted a vessel off the coast of Geraldton with links to drug trafficking.
- ABC
