The Australian police announced on Monday the arrest of 13 individuals and the seizure of a record 2.3 tons of cocaine aboard a boat, marking the largest drug haul in the country’s history.
The arrests, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, followed a month-long investigation launched after information revealed that a gang was preparing to smuggle several tons of drugs, according to Australian Federal Police Commander Stephen Jay.
The traffickers made two attempts to transport the drugs to Australia by sea from a mother ship floating hundreds of kilometers offshore, Jay said.
Their first vessel suffered a mechanical failure, while the second one sank on Saturday, leaving the suspects stranded at sea for several hours until the police boarded their boat and seized the drugs, he added.
The mother ship, located in international waters, was not apprehended, he noted. The value of the seized drugs is estimated at 760 million Australian dollars (around 494 million USD), equivalent to 11.7 million individual street transactions.
The accused, who were due to appear in different courts on Monday, face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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