Three men have been sentenced to 13 years in jail after they tried to smuggle $100 million worth of methamphetamine into Western Australia in bed pillows ahead of New Year’s Eve.
The men were trying to retrieve the drugs from a shipping container of latex pillows when they were arrested by Australian Border Force (ABF) and Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers in Maddington on December 30, 2021.
ABF said officers replaced 99 kilograms of “high-purity methamphetamine with a harmless substance” before the men arrived where the pillow shipment was stored.
“The arrests were a result of a joint agency investigation launched when ABF officers found the drugs hidden in a 550kg shipment of latex bed pillows that arrived on a container ship from Asia,” ABF said in a statement.
“ABF officers in Fremantle examined the consignment on 17 December (2021) and alerted the AFP when they found packages of a crystal-like substance in the pillows.
“Tests established the methamphetamine was more than 80 per cent pure.”
AFP Inspector Chris Colley said the property where the shipping containers were located was mentioned in messages found on a phone allegedly seized from an organised crime member when he was arrested in Taiwan.
“This provides an insight into illegal transnational supply chains, which have been disrupted by the AFP and partners.
“The impact of methamphetamine trafficking and use is seen in road trauma, family violence, homicides, shootings and other violent offending.”
Western Australia has the highest average consumption of meth in the country.
The trio were sentenced to more than 13 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported drug.
Two of the men, now aged 33 and 34, were sentenced to 13 years and six months with a non-parole period of eight years and one month in the Perth District Court.
The third man, 36, was sentenced to 13 years and one month with a non-parole period of seven years and 10 months.
The sentences were backdated to December 30, 2021, when the men were first arrested.
(9 NEWS)
