Three men to front court after NSW Police foil alleged plot to import $485 million of cocaine
Three men have been charged over an alleged plot to smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine into New South Wales worth close to half a billion dollars.
Police said the trio arrested on Thursday each stood to earn $3.4 million over their alleged roles in conspiring to import 1.5 tonnes of the drug into the state.
The men, police alleged, conspired to act as a "catching crew" for shipments of drugs dumped offshore by a bigger cargo vessel.
Police said the men from the Hunter region — aged 23, 24 and 34 — were originally on their radar for "behaving suspiciously" by using cash to buy two fishing boats.
One of those boats, called Seas the Day, is now in possession of police who seized it from Lemon Tree Passage on Thursday.
The Organised Crime Squad has spent years investigating drug shipments off the NSW east coast, which has become a popular route for crime gangs bringing cocaine into Sydney.
According to recent calculations by the Australian Federal Police in an unrelated seizure, the haul of drugs had an estimated street value of $485 million.
Dramatic vision released by police showed the moment officers in tactical gear cornered the car of one of the men on a suburban street in Eleebana, Lake Macquarie.
In it, a number of officers and the dog squad can be seen pulling the 34-year-old man from a car before bringing him to the ground and handcuffing him about 5am on Thursday.
That same day the 23-year-old was arrested at a worksite in Forster and the 24-year-old was arrested in Salamander Bay.
All three have been charged with conspiracy to supply a commercial quantity of cocaine, which carries a maximum penalty of life in jail if convicted.
The men were refused bail and are expected to front Parramatta Local Court on Friday.
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