NSW: Police seize record ecstasy haul worth $45m
By Kim Arlington
SYDNEY, Dec 27 AAP - Police believe they may have cracked an international drug smugglingring with the seizure of a record haul of ecstasy in Sydney this week.
Police seized 250kg of the drug, with an estimated street value of more than $45 million,in Australia's largest ever ecstasy haul.
A joint task force, comprising officers from the Australian Federal Police, NSW Policeand the NSW Crime Commission, conducted a four-month surveillance operation before raidinga property in Sylvania, in Sydney's south, on Christmas Eve.
Three men, alleged to be members of an international drug trafficking syndicate, havebeen arrested in connection to the record seizure.
Detective Superintendent Mark Wright, of the NSW Police Special Crime Unit, said investigationswere continuing across Australia and overseas and more arrests could be made.
He told reporters today that about 750,000 ecstasy tablets were discovered in the backof a van parked in a garage in Mowbray Street, Sylvania.
The tablets, with a street value estimated by police in excess of $45 million, wereconcealed inside lengths of PVC piping.
Det Supt Wright said the ecstasy's origins were still unknown, but the Australian taskforce was liaising with police in the Netherlands, a country known to be a source of highgrade amphetamines.
Intelligence suggested the drugs were destined for the Sydney market, he said.
Federal Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, said the seizure wouldhave a "devastating effect" on criminals dealing in ecstasy.
"Any criminal organisation dealing in the drug would feel a hit of this magnitude,"
Senator Ellison said today.
"It's a significant seizure of ecstasy, the biggest ever.
"Certainly it will have a big effect on the national supply of ecstasy ... it equatesto around 750,000 tablets which will not be reaching the streets of Australia."
Senator Ellison said that with New Year's Eve approaching the seizure of the partydrug was timely.
"Any organised criminal syndicate dealing in drugs would have its eye on when drugusage is likely to be high and no doubt the holiday time is when they're looking at that,"
he said.
Senator Ellison commended the cooperative efforts of the police involved in the investigationand their dedication over the Christmas period.
"They're still on the beat and showing that if you try to bring drugs into the countryor deal in them you'll get caught," he said.
Francis Ballis, 56, of Bondi, Wayne Moore, 52, of Sylvania and Canadian Carl Hinke,48, living in Cronulla, appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Christmas Day, charged withdrug offences under the Customs Act.
They did not seek bail and have been remanded in custody to reappear at Central LocalCourt on January 15.
AAP ka/ph/de
KEYWORD: ECSTASY NIGHTLEAD
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