They seized a shipment of 2.4 tons of cocaine from a Mexican cartel in Australia

There australian police reported successfully seizing a shipment of 2.4 tons of cocaine linked to a Mexican cartel in an undercover operation that began in November 2022 and ended with the capture of 12 people.

In a statement, the Western Australia Police reported on the sting operation where the drugs worth 1 billion Australian dollars were seized, which is equivalent to approximately 676 thousand 800 million US dollars.

“The operation resulted in the arrest of 12 people with cocaine linked to a Mexican drug cartel.“Police reported.

The survey, called Operation Beechwas a joint effort between the Transnational Serious Organized Crime Squad (TSOC) of australian policethere Sydney Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and with the assistance of other state law enforcement jurisdictions.

According to Policethere Operation Beech started in November 2022 after the DEA intercept 2.4 tons of cocaine with fate one Australia off the coast of South America, although it was not specified from which country.

“It was an opportunity for the WA Font replace the cargo with an inert substance and packaging identical to that used by the cartel”, details the press release without mentioning the name of the criminal group.

So when the drugs arrived in Australia, law enforcement already had a solid operation that caught the traffickers.

Although no details have been released on the Mexican criminal group to which the shipment belongs, various reports from Australian authorities have identified the Sinaloa Cartel with the main cocaine distributor in the country.

Agree with InSightCrimenwho cites a report by Center for Defense and Strategy Studies (SDSCfor its acronym in English) of 2016, the Sinaloa Cartel It is the main criminal organization operating in the country, thanks to its influence and contacts.

According to the report, Mexican cartels wholesale drugs to local groups such as “Lebanese, Chinese and Albanian diaspora groups, as well as Australian biker gangs.”

In addition, Mexican criminal groups are said to have established links throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with Australia being their main “target”. Reports reveal that Mexican cartels began entering the territory in 2010.

During this time, the College of Asia and the Pacificattached to Australian National Universityrevealed in a study that the presence of Sinaloa Cartel could jeopardize the stability of border and transit point security. During this time he Australian Center for Defense and Strategic Studies warned that these criminal groups, in particular the Pacific CartelThey pose a threat to national security.

Australia it is home to a large and highly profitable narcotics market, mainly synthetic drugs. Additionally, the high prices at which methamphetamine can be sold make the streets of Australia an attractive market for these criminal groups.

Despite the above, drug trafficking to Australia is too complicated for the Sinaloa CartelTherefore, the authorities have also found that cocaine does not contain any traces of the alkaloid, the responsible substance that causes the effects of the drug and the purity level of this drug is 27%.

In September 2022, elements of the Mexico City Citizen Security Secretariat managed to get more 300 kilograms of cocaine worth more than 90 million pesosapproximately, the same that was destined for the United States and Australia.

It has been reported informally that the drugs seized belonged to the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel (CJNG), although authorities have not confirmed this information.