Australian Police Find 900 Kilos of Meth in Container of "Spring Rolls"

Rolls of crystal meth were discovered in a shipment of "spring rolls" (AFP) — Rolls of meth were discovered in a shipment of "spring rolls" (AFP)

Australian authorities have seized an exceptionally large shipment of amphetamine in a shipping container at a port in New South Wales, among the largest ever found in the region.

On August 20, a team of Australian Border Force officers used intelligence profiling to pick a container for extra scrutiny at Port Botany. When they x-rayed the box, which was marked "vegetable spring roll and more," they found that the "and more" part of the cargo declaration was accurate. Instead of spring rolls, they found hundreds of boxed rolls of shrink-wrap packaging, each roll filled with a core of white granules. The substance tested positive for amphetamine.

In total, the concealed drugs amounted to about 900 kilos of amphetamine, worth a total of $40 million on the street in Australia.

The ABF turned the matter over to the Australian Federal Police, which determined that the shipment was linked to a serious organized crime group with transnational ties. The drug consignment was added to a legimate shipment, authorities believe, without the cargo owners' knowledge.

Courtesy AFP

AFP carried out search warrants at a warehouse in Western Sydney and a house on the north side of Sydney Harbour, and the investigation continues.

"We use a sophisticated intelligence and risk assessment based approach, which has proven to yield significant results," ABF Superintendent Jared Leighton said. "The scale of harm that would have been caused if these drugs landed in our community is unimaginable."

It is the latest in a long string of illegal stimulant busts at ports in Australia, which (per UNDOC) is the developed world's top per-capita consumer of cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine. Organized crime groups from China and South America have a hand in these illicit supply chains, attracted by the towering profits to be found on the Australian drug market. Smugglers continue to innovate: in January, AFP officers seized a cargo of "pink cocaine," a club-drug mixture with ketamine and MDMA, and last October the agency caught a group that had hidden bricks of cocaine inside of two crated marine engines.