Thursday 14th August 2008
Investigators have smashed an international drug syndicate and seized Ecstasy worth A$440 million ($560 million).
The Ecstasy seizure - the world's largest - also led to the cracking of a A$9 million money laundering operation.
Australian federal police arrested 16 people in early-morning raids in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania yesterday after tracking 4.4 tonnes of Ecstasy hidden in shipping containers.
The joint operation between federal police and customs also seized 150kg of cocaine.
Packed in tomato tins, the Ecstasy was allegedly shipped to Melbourne from Italy by a syndicate reported to include men of Italian, Lebanese, Indian and Australian heritage.
The Melbourne Age newspaper said that among premises raided were properties owned by figures linked to the Calabrian mafia in the rural NSW town of Griffith, made infamous as a drug centre by the 1979 Woodward Royal Commission into drug trafficking.
For the full story go to:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=181&objectid=10526091