SYDNEY, Jan 24 (NNN-AAP) – Australian authorities charged three men, over an alleged attempt to smuggle 42 kg of illicit drugs into the country, from Thailand.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force, said in a joint statement today that, the three men were intercepted by officers on arrival at Sydney Airport, on a flight from Thailand yesterday.
A subsequent search of their luggage, allegedly, located individually-wrapped bricks, containing a white substance, testing of which returned a positive result for methamphetamine and heroin.
AFP officers seized 34 kg of heroin and 8 kg of methamphetamine and arrested the three men, all aged 22, from south-east Melbourne, and charged them each with one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and possessing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Both offenses carry maximum penalties of life imprisonment.
According to authorities, the seized volume of heroin had an estimated street value of about 17 million Australian dollars (about 11.7 million U.S. dollars) and the methamphetamine had a value of 7.4 million Australian dollars. (1 Australian dollar equals 0.69 U.S. dollars)– NNN-AAP