Largest Ever Cocaine Bust in Australia After Police Raid Underground Bunker

Tue Jun 23 2026 15:04:11 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Police seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine in a clandestine bunker operation, marking Australia’s biggest drug raid to date.

Australian Federal Police uncovered 2.7 tonnes of cocaine stored in an underground bunker system beneath shipping containers in Londonderry, South Western Sydney. Worth an estimated A$816m, the drugs were part of an operation linked to smuggling routes from Queensland to the Solomon Islands. Two men, aged 21 and 25, were arrested and face life imprisonment. The raid was part of Operation Minjiang, launched after a prior find of 40kg of cocaine at Midge Point. The case highlights the nation’s role as a lucrative drug market.

Largest Ever Cocaine Bust in Australia After Police Raid Underground Bunker

A pile of large plastic bags containing dozens of packages of cocaine seized by the Australian Federal Police. — Two men, aged 21 and 25, were arrested at the scene.

Australian police have seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine – the country’s largest ever drug bust – from an underground bunker system in western Sydney. The drugs, with an estimated street value of A$816m (£433m, €500m), were found on Friday in compartments concealed beneath false floors in three shipping containers at a property in Londonderry.

Two men aged 21 and 25, who allegedly tried to flee from police, were arrested at the scene and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border‑controlled drug. They were remanded in custody after appearing in court on Saturday and face life in prison if convicted.

Police say the cocaine was smuggled into Australia via the small town of Midge Point in North Queensland on the orders of an organised crime group. The raid on the Londonderry property was part of “Operation Minjiang”, launched in May after 40kg of cocaine was found floating in the water off a boat ramp at Midge Point.

Six other people in Queensland and New South Wales were arrested and charged as part of investigations sparked by the find, police said last week. An alleged “mother vessel” suspected of being part of the smuggling operation has also been detained in the Solomon Islands.

Despite its remoteness, Australia is a lucrative market for the drugs trade, with cocaine typically fetching around A$300 per gram, according to an illegal drugs monitoring system run by the University of New South Wales. Australians and New Zealanders also have the highest cocaine use rates in the world, according to last year’s UN World Drug Report.

AFC Commander Stephen Jay said the alleged plot showed “how highly organised and determined these criminal networks are, and the extreme lengths they are willing to go to in pursuit of profit.” He added that investigations into the origin of the drugs remain ongoing and that law‑enforcement partners will be worked with to identify the syndicates involved.