Australian Federal Police and Border Force have seized the country’s largest ever shipment of the potentially deadly opioid fentanyl.
More than 11kg of pure powdered fentanyl and 30kg of methamphetamine were found hidden inside machinery sent from Canada to Melbourne in December 2021.
The AFP says the seizure has stopped more than five million potentially lethal doses of the drug from hitting the streets.
Australia has only ever detected illicit fentanyl importations of less than 30g, with the first case in 2017.
Fentanyl is a fast-acting opioid that is highly addictive and acts on the same receptors in the body as heroin.
The drug is primarily used for medical purposes in Australia, but authorities say that in overseas illicit drug markets it has been cut with heroin, often with fatal consequences.
“People who use illicit drugs can never be certain what they are ingesting and this seizure highlights the potentially lethal game of Russian roulette they play. We don’t want to see Australia joining other countries in that deadly game,” AFP acting Commander Anthony Hall said.
“Drug extraction can always pose a risk but the lethality of fentanyl, even in small doses, required our forensic officers to wear bio-hazard suits and we had multiple ambulances on standby.
“Our concern is that if such a large amount of fentanyl was in the hands of Australian-based criminal networks driven by greed, it could have passed uncontrolled and hidden into the community with possibly deadly results”.
PHOTO: AFP
The AFP, ABF and the department of Home Affairs have now established a joint operation to identify those responsible for importing the fentanyl.
No arrests have yet been made, with authorities urging anyone with knowledge of the attempted importation to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
