Cops smash £211million fish market drugs ring in dramatic Christmas Day raids
Arrests follow two-and-a-half year investigation into 'smugglers using fishing trawlers to move cocaine from Chile to Australia'
POLICE have blown open a major cocaine ring worth hundreds of millions of pounds operating out of the Sydney Fish Market in Australia, resulting in the arrest of more than a dozen men.
The arrests, made during a series of Christmas Day raids, come after a two-and-a-half year investigation by the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police (NSW) Drug Squad.
The top-secret investigation targeted commercial fishermen who were allegedly using fishing trawlers to move cocaine from Chile to Australia, the
The amount seized on Christmas night was approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine, NSW police confirmed in a media release, estimated to be worth $162million (£95.1m).
More than 600 kilograms of cocaine was seized in Tahiti which was destined for Australia, estimated to be worth approximately $197million (£115.6m).
This amount of cocaine seized in total has an estimated street value of approximately $360 million (£211.3), according to police.
Additionally, 15 men allegedly involved in the Australian criminal syndicate responsible for the attempted importations have been charged with serious drug importation offences.
They range in age from 29 to 63 years, and have all been refused bail.
One of the 15 men targeted in the sting is a former National Rugby League star and a Bondi Beach cafe king, according to the Daily Telegraph.
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Images released by police show multiple men standing in handcuffs in the dark while on-board a fishing vessel named Dalrymple.
Their faces have been blurred.
Detectives attached to the lengthy operation pounced on the alleged trug traffickers on Sunday night, seizing approximately 500kg of cocaine from an inflatable boat as it pulled up to a boat ramp at Brooklyn on the NSW Central Coast.
“This operation has been running for more than two-and-a-half years and culminated over the Christmas period,” the police statement reads.
AFP Organised Crime national manager Chris Sheehan told the Daily Telegraph that every single member of the syndicate had now been arrested.
“No matter how many ventures we disrupted they still kept going,” he said.
“This group — the 15 we have arrested — that’s the entire syndicate from top to bottom.”
All of the men are expected to appear before Sydney's Central Local Court in March, but a number are likely to make bail applications in the next few weeks.
Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan, NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins, and Australian Border Force Acting Assistant Commissioner Tim Fitzgerald will address media in Sydney at 11am local time on Thursday.
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