SYDNEY: Australian authorities have seized a record haul of 3.9 tonnes of a methamphetamine ingredient smuggled from Thailand in tea bottles, police said on Friday.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) said two people were arrested after the seizure last month at a Sydney sea cargo examination facility. An Australian man and a female Australian-Chinese dual national, both 22, were refused bail on Thursday after being charged with importing a drug precursor.
Australian Border Force officers, following up on information from Thai authorities, detected the shipment of more than 1,000 cartons each containing 24 bottles labelled as iced green and black tea. AFP said tests were positive for ephedrine in around one-third of the cartons. The shipment was mislabelled as the popular Oishi brand.
The liquid ephedrine could have been used to make up to A$3.5 billion (90.7 billion baht) worth of methamphetamine, police said.
They said it was the largest seizure of precursor chemicals at the Australian border, more than doubling the previous record of 1.4 tonnes only four months ago.
"We know our country has an insatiable demand for narcotics, and criminal networks will use every concealment method possible to get their harmful substances past our borders,'' AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said.
"This is not a problem we can combat alone,'' and is why we rely on the strengths of our partnerships, he said.
Oishi, Thailand's ready-to-drink green tea producer, issued a statement on Saturday, pledging to "fully cooperate with the investigating agencies both domestic and overseas".
"Our world-class production and supply chain processes incorporate a traceability system that will provide all necessary information,'' the statement said.