Police uncover Australia's largest ever cocaine haul during underground bunker search

Police in Australia uncovered what officials call the country’s largest-ever cocaine haul after searching underground bunkers at a home on the edge of Sydney. Authorities seized 2.7 metric tons (about 3 tons) of cocaine, found in plastic tubs buried across bunkers hidden beneath three shipping containers in Londonderry, on Sydney’s western edge. The Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce said the containers used false floors to reach the drugs, which police valued at 816 million Australian dollars (about $572 million). Two Sydney residents, men aged 21 and 25, were arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an illicit drug, facing potential life sentences. Police allege the cocaine arrived by boat at Midge Point in Queensland’s tropics and was then transported by road to Sydney, a distance of 1,800 kilometers. Investigators suspect the shipment came from the same mother ship as an earlier Queensland seizure involving 178 kilograms of cocaine, and identified the Belize-flagged MV Wealth, reportedly seized by Solomon Islands authorities.