Two men have been charged for allegedly possessing 110 kilograms of cocaine in Far North Queensland.
The men, both aged 39, were arrested on the Cape York Peninsula yesterday afternoon.
It will be alleged the men travelled to Seisia to collect a commercial quantity of cocaine from a small boat in the Torres Strait.
The men were arrested by officers from the AFP Cairns Crime Team after they were observed removing a number of polystyrene boxes from the small boat and loading them into a car at Seisia Wharf.
Police intercepted the car and conducted a search of the boxes, allegedly locating 110 packages containing a white substance. Testing of the substance returned a positive result for cocaine.
The men were taken into custody and transported to Bamaga Police Station, before being flown to Cairns yesterday with the assistance of the Queensland Police Service Air Wing.
Both men are due to appear in Cairns Magistrates Court today.
The Yorke Island man and Moa Island man have both been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs (cocaine), contrary to Section 307.5 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).
The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.
AFP Acting Commander Adrian Telfer says the desire from criminal syndicates to profit from cocaine came at the expense of the Australian community.
“Every time someone buys cocaine they are funding organised crime groups who are responsible for violence in Australia and around the world,” he says.
“This amount of cocaine has an estimated street value of $44 million.
“The AFP and our partners will not let organised crime turn the Pacific into an illicit drug superhighway, fuelling their own greed at the expense of the Australian community.”
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