Three men charged over alleged $400m drug smuggling plot into Queensland (original) (raw)

Federal Police have stopped $400 million of liquid meth from hitting the streets of Queensland.

The AFP worked with their international counterparts in Canada after the illicit drugs, hidden in juice bottles, arrived in Vancouver from Brazil bound for Logan.

Police allege the plan was to import 1.2 tonnes of liquid meth, which was disguised as apple juice.

IMAGE | Supplied

This amount of liquid methamphetamine has an estimated street value of $400 million.

Once converted into crystal methamphetamine, it could have equated to 4 million individual street deals.

The package, which had had the drugs swapped out from Canadian authorities, eventually arrived at a semi-rural Jimboomba property and stored in a large shed.

Three men were arrested at the property and at a shopping centre in Browns Plains on Brisbane’s south side last week.

A Jimboomba man, 43, a Jimboomba man, 35 and a Buccan man, 30, have each been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.

The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.

Testing by Canadian authorities allegedly revealed the liquid methamphetamine had a purity level up to 89 per cent.

AFP Acting Commander Adrian Telfer says the negative impact of methamphetamine on the Australian community is well known.

“The cost to our society from 4 million hits of crystal methamphetamine cannot be overstated,” Acting Commander Telfer says.

“If converted to crystal meth and sold into the Australian community, this amount of liquid methamphetamine would have led to domestic violence, assaults and contributed to the road toll, as well as lined the pockets or organised crime.”

Get more from Moyra & Big Trev