Londonderry cocaine bust sets record for biggest in Australian history, police say
Updated ,first published
As police brace for underworld turmoil, public tip-offs about a burning truck at a Queensland boat ramp and a pile of land on the outskirts of Sydney have led to Australia’s biggest cocaine seizure.
More than 2.5 tonnes of cocaine were uncovered at a western Sydney property on Friday following investigations into a total shipment of more than three tonnes of the drug.
Queensland Police Detective Superintendent Troy Pukallus said the seizure was a credit to frontline investigators who followed up on a tip from the public.
“The initial response was to a burning vehicle… potentially to destroy evidence,” Pukallus said Monday.
“It’s a credit to our front-line investigators, just the initial response, the assessment and the investigation, that we came to this conclusion from the investigations they conducted.”
AFP Investigations Commander Stephen Jay said the record-breaking shipment showed a “significant organized crime syndicate” was behind the imports.
“Exactly who he is is something we’re still looking into,” Jay said.
The seizure coincides with an escalation in violence in the ongoing conflict between criminal groups vying for control of Sydney’s lucrative drugs market, but Jay said law enforcement was ready to respond.
“Violence is committed by an organized crime network,” he said.
“Someone lost a lot of money and no doubt there will be some soul-searching.”
Cocaine, worth approximately $816 million when packaged and sold, was allegedly found at a property in Londonderry.
Three shipping containers with false floors lined underground bunkers filled with drug-filled storage containers.
A sophisticated attempt to hide the drugs underground left a clear lead for investigators, Jay said.
“There was a large amount of disturbed soil in the immediate vicinity of the shipping container, which clearly was something for investigators to focus on,” he said.
Police say it is the biggest cocaine bust in Australian history.
The largest cocaine seizure previously seized by the AFP was a 2.34-ton load of cocaine found on a fishing vessel off K’gari Island in Queensland in late 2024.
It is alleged the two men were trying to flee the Londonderry property when police arrived.
The couple was arrested and charged with possession of a commercial quantity of an illegally imported, border-controlled drug.
Andrew Whata Fepuleai, 21, and Kristian Faumui, 25, were taken into custody on Saturday and will appear again in Penrith Local Court on August 13.
While police continue to investigate whether the men had any knowledge of the privacy matter, neither of them owns the property and has not yet been charged.
The discovery in Western Sydney came during a police operation that began in May when 40kg of cocaine was found in water north of Mackay, Queensland.
Police first received a report of a burning truck at a nearby boat ramp.
“This shows how even a seemingly innocuous thing, a small report from the community can lead to something much bigger,” Jay said.
However, investigators believe the cocaine in the water was only a fraction of the total shipment allegedly deposited on a smaller vessel from the MV Wealth; This is a common technique for smuggling drugs into Australia.
The cargo ship has since been detained in the Solomon Islands.
As the investigation continued in June, a further 178kg of cocaine was found, along with 142kg of methamphetamine, inside a van parked at a home in Mount Cotton, south-east of Brisbane.
The owners of the Mount Cotton property are not considered suspects and police believe they were unaware of what was inside the van.
The drugs are alleged to have come from the same north Queensland import.
A 24-year-old man from Green Valley in Western Sydney who allegedly traveled to northern Queensland to collect and transport the drugs was arrested on Wednesday.
Five other people were arrested in Queensland in connection with the investigation.
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
