Loom and bust: Aussie men stitched up in Thai meth fabric sting
Police bust crafty shipment after bolt from Bangkok hides six million street hits
Three Aussie men have been charged after nearly 600 kilogrammes of methamphetamine, enough for six million hits, was found sewn into fabric rolls shipped from Thailand in a smuggling operation straight out of a crime thriller.
Australian Border Force (ABF) officers swooped on the cargo at the Port of Brisbane on July 4, after eight wooden crates labelled as “UV protective fabrics” raised suspicions.
Inside, they uncovered a staggering 597kg of methamphetamine carefully wrapped into 200 rolls of material, a haul with an estimated street value in the hundreds of millions.
Rather than move in straight away, authorities swapped out the drugs and delivered the shipment to a warehouse in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, while keeping it under surveillance.
According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the three men, aged 22, 24 and 28, all from New South Wales, were spotted lurking near the warehouse.
“Two of the men allegedly began to unravel the rolls of fabric, as the 24 year old attended a business to buy an electronic scale to allegedly weigh the illicit drugs they were expecting,” the AFP and ABF said in a joint statement.
During raids on the warehouse and two vehicles, officers seized four mobile phones, around AU$7,000 (149,000 baht) in cash, tools thought to be used to extract the drugs, and the decoy shipment.
The trio, Tony Nguyen, Ky Brendan, and Martin Nguyen, were charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug, said ABC News.
Brendan and Tony Nguyen did not appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday, July 9. Martin Nguyen appeared via video link but was denied bail. All three remain in custody until their next court date in August.
AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer slammed the syndicate’s callousness.
“The people behind importations like this have no regard for the harm and damage that illicit drugs wreak on the Australian community every minute of every day.”
ABF Acting Assistant Commissioner James Copeman praised the operation, saying the concealment was “incredibly sophisticated” but ultimately foiled by sharp-eyed officers.
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