Photo: Get Sydney

On 10 February 2018, a container carrying five pallets of pens and other stationery arrived in Sydney from China. The container was taken to the ABF’s Sydney Container Examination Facility for x-ray and officers noted anomalies in 50 boxes of highlighters.

The shipment was deconstructed and presumptive testing returned positive results for ephedrine with a total weight of 294 kg. Police will allege in court that it’s estimated the precursor could have been used to make about 2.4 million hits of ‘ice’, with an estimated potential street value of $120 million.

ABF investigators and detectives from the NSWPF Drug and Firearms Squad conducted a controlled delivery to a storage facility in Sydney’s Inner West.

Three men – aged 26, 27, and 34 – attended the facility and were arrested after they allegedly accessed the consignment on Friday (23 February 2018).

The 27-year-old man was charged with import commercial quantity border controlled precursor.

He has been formally refused bail to reappear at Central Local Court on Wednesday (28 February 2018).

The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $900,000.

The other two men have been released pending further inquiries.

Investigators also executed a search warrant at a home at Glebe, where they seized items relevant to the investigation.

ABF Investigations Superintendent Garry Low said while highlighters was a unique concealment method, ABF officers find drugs and precursors in almost anything.  

“We’ve recently invested heavily in upgrades to x-ray technology at our container examination facilities, including here in Sydney, allowing our officers to see further in to each container and detect even more sophisticated concealments,” Superintendent Low said.

“This technology, combined with the significant skills of our investigators, and our collaboration with our state police colleagues has once again seen a large amount of precursors seized before it could be turned into millions of hits of ‘ice’.

“ABF and our partners have made a significant dent in the availability of ice over the past 12 months, with the seizure more than 2 tonnes of ephedrine at the border in NSW alone.”

NSWPF Drug and Firearms Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Peter McErlain, said targeting ice and precursors remains a priority for NSW Police Force and their partners.

“Ice poses a unique challenge for law enforcement, as we need to intercept the illicit importation of both finished product and precursors, such as ephedrine,” Det Supt McErlain said.

“These types of seizures can have a significant impact on the availability of ice across NSW, but our work does not stop at importations – we are also targeting the supply of this poison in metropolitan, regional and rural areas, and the crude manufacture in clandestine laboratories.

“Criminal syndicates profit from the misery created by these illicit substances, so as much as anything, the community focus needs to be on reducing the demand for all illicit drugs.”

Anyone with information about the importation of illicit drugs or precursors is encouraged to report it to the ABF’s BorderWatch program by visiting australia.gov.au/borderwatch.