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NEWS: Four charged over record '$40m' drug haul - SMH

apollo

apollo

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Four Australians have been charged over a record $40 million shipment of pseudoephedrine, a drug used to make "speed", found hidden in a shipping container of wall plaques.

Australian Federal Police said the charges followed the September 4 seizure of 750kg of amphetamine, with an estimated wholesale value of $40.5 million.

A thorough investigation by Customs officers, using a number of sophisticated technologies, revealed the drugs disguised in decorative wall plaques," Justice Minister Chris Ellison said.

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) had tipped off Customs officials about the container, which was then x-rayed at a special facility, he said.

The haul marked the third stage of a joint operation between the ACC, AFP and Cambodian National Police.

Senator Ellison said the operation had already netted two Australians, four Cambodians and one Vietnamese after the April seizure of a heroin shipment with an estimated street value of $24 million.

"The (authorities) have dismantled an international drug trafficking operation that was allegedly involved in transitional drug trafficking throughout South East Asia," he said.

Police said the four men had been charged with importing a prohibited import, and would appear in Sydney's Burwood Local Court later today.
Click to expand...

Some Friday afternoon news :)
 
It'd be a bit hard to pass that one off as being for personal use. :D
 
750 kg = 750,000 g = 7,500,000 points = 1 point a day for 20,000 years (roughly).

That's gotta be at least 250 lifetimes.

BigTrancer =D
 
The key is to remember to eat. Otherwise you'll be in for one hell of a comedown on your 81st birthday.

What was the topic again? ;)
 
thats a bit amount. this will probably effect the market a bit in a couple months
 
More recent news reports state it as pseudoephedrine, "which can easily be turned into amphetamines". Beautiful tile patterns though!

[edit: typo town]
 
News: 13/09/2003 $1.4bn drug haul smashed

IN its first major operational success, the Australian Crime Commission has seized 750kg of pseudoephedrine, the largest Australian haul of the chemical used to make methamphetamine.

The drugs were found hidden in decorative wall plaques in a shipping container at Sydney's Port Botany. The container had been unloaded from the MV Commander which arrived from Thailand on September 4.

The seizure, and the arrests on Thursday night of four Australians on trafficking charges, came after a nine- month investigation involving Cambodian, Thai and Vietnamese authorities. Customs officers and the Australian Federal Police also played a role.

Three of the charged men - all relatives - Dinh Tai Phan, 31, Dinh Thinh Phan, 33, and Din Tan Phan, 77, appeared yesterday in Burwood Local Court and did not enter pleas. They were refused bail and remanded to reappear on September 22.

A total of 11 people have now been arrested in the multi-national operation, including four Cambodians and a Vietnamese. Two more suspects, both Australian women, remain at large.

The ACC, which replaced the former organised crime-fighting body the National Crime Authority late last year, believes the bust is linked to two shipments seized earlier this year, including 24kg of heroin with an estimated street value of $24million.

Police think the third shipment was a dummy run of a small quantity of heroin designed to test the effectiveness of Australia's border controls.

Pseudoephedrine is normally used as a decongestant to relieve nasal discomfort caused by colds, allergies, or hay fever. However, it is also used as a precursor ingredient for making methamphetamine, then pressed into pills, which are popular in the nightclub and dance scenes.

The seizure had a wholesale value of $40.5 million. The federal Government estimated that its value could have leapt to almost $1.4billion once it had been transformed into amphetamines.

Investigation chief for the ACC's Southeast Asian crime unit, Ray Tinker, said: "This has, in my opinion, dismantled the syndicate to a point where it can no longer operate."

The previous largest haul of pseudoephedrine was 550kg, seized in Melbourne two years ago.

Drug smuggling syndicates have historically been reluctant to mix the drugs they smuggle.

But Mr Tinker said the alleged traffickers' haul of heroin and pseudoephedrine was an emerging trend.

The Australian

Taken from here

*edit*

Oh dear to: Pseudoephedrine is normally used as a decongestant to relieve nasal discomfort caused by colds, allergies, or hay fever. However, it is also used as a precursor ingredient for making methamphetamine, then pressed into pills, which are popular in the nightclub and dance scenes.



*EDIT again - Noticed Apollo had put this in the 40mil drug bust one but I can't delete the thread by edit - tick edit - save changes* Can mods either delete this or merge with apollo's thread please
 
Last edited:
Three of the charged men - all relatives - Dinh Tai Phan, 31, Dinh Thinh Phan, 33, and Din Tan Phan, 77
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LOL!!!!!!! I wonder what the rest of the families names were!
 
More detail this morning.

$1.4bn drug haul smashed
By Martin Chulov and Caitlin Fitzsimmons
September 13, 2003

IN its first major operational success, the Australian Crime Commission has seized 750kg of pseudoephedrine, the largest Australian haul of the chemical used to make methamphetamine.

The drugs were found hidden in decorative wall plaques in a shipping container at Sydney's Port Botany. The container had been unloaded from the MV Commander which arrived from Thailand on September 4.

The seizure, and the arrests on Thursday night of four Australians on trafficking charges, came after a nine- month investigation involving Cambodian, Thai and Vietnamese authorities. Customs officers and the Australian Federal Police also played a role.

Three of the charged men - all relatives - Dinh Tai Phan, 31, Dinh Thinh Phan, 33, and Din Tan Phan, 77, appeared yesterday in Burwood Local Court and did not enter pleas. They were refused bail and remanded to reappear on September 22.

A total of 11 people have now been arrested in the multi-national operation, including four Cambodians and a Vietnamese. Two more suspects, both Australian women, remain at large.

The ACC, which replaced the former organised crime-fighting body the National Crime Authority late last year, believes the bust is linked to two shipments seized earlier this year, including 24kg of heroin with an estimated street value of $24million.

Police think the third shipment was a dummy run of a small quantity of heroin designed to test the effectiveness of Australia's border controls.

Pseudoephedrine is normally used as a decongestant to relieve nasal discomfort caused by colds, allergies, or hay fever. However, it is also used as a precursor ingredient for making methamphetamine, then pressed into pills, which are popular in the nightclub and dance scenes.

The seizure had a wholesale value of $40.5 million. The federal Government estimated that its value could have leapt to almost $1.4billion once it had been transformed into amphetamines.

Investigation chief for the ACC's Southeast Asian crime unit, Ray Tinker, said: "This has, in my opinion, dismantled the syndicate to a point where it can no longer operate."

The previous largest haul of pseudoephedrine was 550kg, seized in Melbourne two years ago.

Drug smuggling syndicates have historically been reluctant to mix the drugs they smuggle.

But Mr Tinker said the alleged traffickers' haul of heroin and pseudoephedrine was an emerging trend.
Click to expand...

Link

More details in different article from the Herald Sun
$1400m drug bust
By MARK BUTTLER, chief police reporter
13 Sep 2003

AN international syndicate with links to Melbourne has been smashed as it prepared to flood the streets with $1.4 billion of drugs.

The gang, which was as big as the giant Mr Asia syndicate of the 1980s, is suspected of trafficking tonnes of heroin and other drugs into Australia in the past five years.
The Australian Crime Commission crippled the syndicate yesterday when it seized 750kg of pseudoephedrine – the key ingredient of ecstasy and amphetamines.

The pseudoephedrine was moulded into decorative wall plaques and transported inside a shipping container to Sydney.

"It's worth squillions," a police source said yesterday.

Police said the market for illicit drugs, popular in nightclubs, would have made Victoria central to the sales strategy of the drug makers.

Investigators last night were hunting a fugitive mystery woman with connections to Melbourne's Asian drug-dealing underworld.

It is believed the wealthy woman has probably not been able to flee Australia and may be using connections in Victoria to evade arrest.

Another woman, believed to be a relative, is also being sought.

Australia's previous largest pseudoephedrine haul was 556kg in Melbourne, in August 2001.

Police used a controlled delivery to later seize the drugs at its destination, a house in the Sydney suburb of Berala.

Four Australian men, aged between 29 and 77, have been arrested by Operation Djura 3 officers and have been remanded on commercial drug trafficking and importation charges.

The Australian Crime Commission worked with the Cambodian National Police in a year-long operation which was aimed at identifying the traffickers at the source.

It led them to the Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Minh where key syndicate figures met before having the drugs packaged and shipped out of Bangkok in Thailand.

Those at the top of the syndicate are known for having made massive fortunes, operating the cartel as a huge, ruthless multi-national business.

In recent years they switched from heroin trafficking to party drugs when they saw the massive profit potential.

The cartel suffered a blow in April when its plan to import 24kg of heroin in cans of fish paste was foiled by Australian investigators.

Australian Crime Commission South-East Asian crime unit chief Ray Tinker said the latest seizure and arrests had crippled the syndicate and dealt a major blow to Australia's amphetamine industry.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison said the pseudoephedrine could have made amphetamine-based products with a street value of $1.4 billion.
Click to expand...

Link
 
I think it is a joke that this 750kg of meth made from the pseudo has been earmarked by the police and the politicians as going straight into the party scene - all of it it seems.

Sure there is meth used in the nightclub scene, but clearly much of it is used outside the scene by addicts, shift workers, drinkers, truckies, school kids, party goers not partying at the time - the list is endless.

It is this rather unfortunate comment that i believe has dragged ecstasy into some of these reports; pseudo in MDMA pills? or better pseudo posing as MDMA pills? big deal - those pills certainly wont get far.

How can they possibly know that all this meth would be pressed into pills also - its far more likely to remain as meth powder.

Of course "pills, parties, teenagers and doof doof music" are the best money spinners atm - far more so than just preventing the 750kg from being used by all walks of life all throughout the community.
 
Lot's of Drugs - but less than 10%?

..so does this amount fall within the 3-10% figures quoted by Feds, representing the percentage seized of all drugs circulating? Or are next year's figures going to look "better" [?]

which-ever way you look at it, figures like this imply that conservative estimations on *total drugs consumed* may be way off the mark 8(
 
this is insane. on the radio, i heard the same 750 kilogram amount but they estibated the street value of over $1billion. Is the media hyping this up just a tad?
 
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