Police bust $40m international cocaine operation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Two men reportedly Qantas baggage handlers have been charged by the AFP after allegedly unloading 100 kilograms of cocaine from a passenger plane in Sydney last weekend.

Transcript

00:00 Five men in total have been charged over this alleged plot to smuggle 100 kilograms of cocaine

00:08 into Sydney airport.

00:10 And the AFP says these drugs were smuggled into the cargo hold of a passenger plane,

00:16 Qantas Flight 64, which came from Johannesburg and landed in Sydney on Saturday afternoon.

00:23 And they say that they estimate that the street value of these drugs was $40 million.

00:29 And two of the men who were charged worked at the airport and the AFP alleges that they

00:33 used their employment and access to baggage handling operations to remove the five bags

00:40 of cocaine and place them into a car outside the airport freight terminal where they met

00:46 a driver.

00:47 And the driver of that car, as well as those two men who work at the airport, were all

00:50 charged and arrested shortly after the handover.

00:54 And police also arrested a 62-year-old man who coordinated this handover, as well as

01:00 a 42-year-old man who is believed to be the primary facilitator and mastermind of this

01:06 plot.

01:07 And he is allegedly involved in coordinating with overseas figures to source the cocaine

01:14 and place it onto the aircraft.

01:17 And police say that the AFP strongly targets border operations in regards to drug importations.

01:25 And all five men appeared in Parramatta local court yesterday and they were denied bail.

01:31 One of the men will appear at Downing Centre local court again today, while the other men

01:36 will appear on November 30.

01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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