Australian police seized 766 kilograms of MDMA powder and six people, including four British men, were arrested in New Zealand, Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) in a major drug bust, Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Wednesday.
The haul, the result of a multi-agency investigation led by Queensland police, has an estimated street value of 90 million Australian dollars (60 million US dollars) and is ‘one of Queensland and Australia's most significant drug seizures,’ AFP said in a statement.
Detective Superintendent Jon Wacker, from Queensland State Crime Command's Drug and Serious Crime Group, said the MDMA powder was the highest purity ever recorded in Queensland.
‘We believe the drug would have been diluted with other agents and had the potential to make between six and 12 million capsules,’ Wacker said.
According to the Australian Associated Press the quantity represented around 7 per cent of the national yearly total in Australia.
Two British men, a 51-year-old and 40-year-old, and a 26-year-old Australian man were arrested in Queensland and charged with drug possession and drug supply.
In New Zealand, two other British men, a 60-year-old and a 49-year-old, were arrested after 200 kilograms of methamphetamine were seized by police last week as part of the same investigation into an international organized crime syndicate.
Raids were also carried out in NSW on Tuesday, where a 51-year-old Australian woman was arrested in connection to the seizure of approximately 108,000 dollars.
