Police seize weapons, drugs worth $170 million in raid linked to

Australian police said on Wednesday they had seized $170 million worth of drugs and weapons in a raid on a group likely linked to an organized crime attempt near a daycare center in Sydney last week.

Police in New South Wales said last week they had foiled an assassination attempt by a so-called “murder squad” and arrested three men involved.

And on Wednesday, police said they had seized about 880 pounds of drugs in a major bust targeting a transnational criminal syndicate they said was likely linked to that botched hit.

Detectives found bricks of methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and heroin vacuum-sealed inside duffel bags and hidden in Sydney safe houses. Another 20 kilograms of precursor chemicals were also seized, police said. They estimated the loot had a street value of 260 million Australian dollars ($170 million).

Police said the raids were part of a broader operation to dismantle a “transnational network believed to operate in Southeast Asia.”

Organized Crime Squad commander Peter Faux told local media that the syndicate was “very likely” linked to last week’s assassination attempt.

“We believe it is very likely that there are some links between certain entities surrounding the incident that occurred last week,” he said.

Faux also said there were “potentially some links” to the April kidnapping and murder of a Sydney mother over her husband’s alleged connections to an organized crime network linked to Vietnam.

Police released a video showing officers wearing oxygen masks and images of the suspected drugs seized. The video also shows at least one suspect being detained and taken away by police.

Other police images showed a squad of armed officers searching one of the hideouts.

Sealed packages of drugs littered the floor, adorned with the image of a cartoon bear made famous in Mark Wahlberg’s 2012 comedy “Ted.”

Another bag featured red Chinese characters that read “smooth sailing.”

They also seized three pistols and more than 300 cartridges.

Three men aged between 19 and 26 were arrested and charged with a series of drug trafficking offences.

Wealthy Australians are willing to pay some of the highest prices in the world for drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

This lucrative black market has increasingly attracted the attention of sophisticated criminal networks ranging from the Triads of Southeast Asia to the cartels of South America.

Last month, authorities said three Sydney dockworkers were charged with a massive shipment of cocaine in a police investigation into trusted individuals importing illicit drugs into Australia. In 2024, Australian police dismantled a drug trafficking network nicknamed “The Commission” that brought more than a ton of cocaine into the country in just a few months.

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• drug cartels
• Australia
• Cocaine
• Sign