CRIME_ Arrests bust crime syndicates after $60m of cocaine found in whale boat

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Arrests bust crime syndicates after $60m of cocaine found in whale boat

January 18, 20177:01pm



The former whaling boat intercepted in December from which 186kg of cocaine was seized worth more than $60 million. Picture: Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Staff writers and AAP  news.com.au

FOUR men accused of trying to smuggle more than $60 million worth of cocaine into Australia in an ex-Japanese whaling vessel have appeared in a Melbourne court after raids earlier today.


Omer Tok, 39, Mohamed Kaddour, 47, Christopher Peroulis, 48, and Youssif Tawfik, 25, were remanded in custody to reappear in May after appearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.

The men were among six people arrested earlier on Wednesday after about 186kg of cocaine was seized from a 50-metre former commercial vessel in December as part of a year- long investigation into a drug syndicate.

Victorian and Australian Federal Police arrested the men in Melbourne and Queensland after carrying out 15 raids across the states.

Officers seized around $93,000 cash, a quantity of drugs, stolen boats and a pill press after searching houses, factories and boats in Victoria and hotel rooms in Queensland. The 50-metre boat was intercepted off the Tasmanian coast in December, and police allegedly found 186 kilograms of cocaine on board.

Police claim the vessel was the “mothership” where the intended drug deals would be carried out.

Ten alleged crewmen, nine Chinese and one Singaporean, were arrested on the day.

Police will allege those arrested today are part of a Melbourne organised crime syndicate which was monitored for a year ahead of the boat being intercepted late last year.

Ten foreign nationals — previously identified as Chinese and aged between 23 and 50 — on board the vessel appeared in Hobart Magistrates Court this week charged with drug importation.

The AFP says major criminal syndicates have been dismantled after the latest arrests.

The Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF) announced the results of the major multi-agency operation this afternoon.

“We see this is a fantastic outcome in terms of reducing the harm that these drugs do in the community,” one spokesman said.

Detailing the operation in a joint statement, the AFP alleged two criminal syndicates working together had been successfully dismantled.

Operation Barada began last October, when the Victorian JOCTF began investigating this Melbourne-based syndicate suspected of attempting to import narcotics into Australia.

Separately, in December 2016, the Maritime Border Command advised the Victorian JOCTF of the now seized vessel’s suspicious movements travelling towards Australia.

After further investigation and intelligence assessments, police determined that these syndicates were connected, launching a major multi-agency operation drawing on hundreds of Commonwealth and state law enforcement officers and Defence personnel.

Police will allege the men arrested today made several attempts to launch a vessel from Australia to meet the commercial vessel seized in December, with the intent of transporting the cocaine back to Australia for distribution to multiple drug trafficking syndicates across Australia.

These men have all been charged with attempting to import a border controlled drug, namely cocaine, contrary to section 307.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.

Further arrests have not been ruled out.

The cocaine seizure was a record for Tasmania and came ahead of Australia’s largest ever cocaine seizure on December 25, 2016, in a series of Christmas Day raids in Sydney.

Following the Christmas Day seizure of cocaine at Parsley Bay, Australian Federal Police charged 15 men in connection with the haul.

READ MORE: http://www.news.com.au/national/crime/arrests-in-melbourne-qld-over-60-of-cocaine-found-in-whale-boat/news-story/c26f1ec68ace0a83015f7eeab80c2917

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