A West Australian man has been arrested, accused of importing 185 kilograms of meth into the country, hidden in bags of rice.
The 35-year-old man from Doubleview is also charged with hatching a plot to steal $300,000 in cash in a roadside armed robbery.
Australian Border Force officers found the drug hidden in bags of rice in a consignment sent by sea from Pakistan to Perth in December 2024, sparking a months-long investigation.
Dubbed Operation Estevan, the investigation probed the man’s involvement in the alleged meth importation, worth more than $150 million, but escalated when police were tipped off about a planned armed robbery.
The man and an accomplice were planning to rob a car at gunpoint to steal $300,000 of illicit cash before it was smuggled out of WA, police allege.
“Police acted quickly to disrupt the robbery before anyone was placed in danger,” an AFP statement said on Friday.
Authorities intercepted two cars – each with two occupants – in outer Perth on August 5.
Police found the alleged robbers – the 35-year-old man and his 35-year-old accomplice – in a van with a loaded handgun, gloves and encrypted communications devices.
In an SUV, officers found a 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Victoria with $300,000 in cash in vacuum-sealed bags stored in a hidden compartment in the boot.
Officers believe the alleged robbers had placed a tracking device on the SUV and were planning to intercept them at gunpoint to steal the cash, suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Police also searched a home in Perth’s north on Thursday and allegedly found weapons and various illicit drugs, charging a 32-year-old man with five offences.
The five people remain before the courts and in total, eight people have now been charged under Operation Estevan since January, with police not ruling out further arrests.
AAP