Thread: Record $259 million worth of cocaine seized

Record $259 million worth of cocaine seized in two hauls in Australia

By Allen Cone | Dec. 29, 2016 at 10:32 PM

An Australian Federal Police Officer stands next to a pile of cocaine Thursday in Sydney, Australia, that was seized, including 1,102 pounds on Christmas Day. The total value is $259 million, including another haul in March. Photo by Daniel McCulloch/European Pressphoto Agency


SYDNEY, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Australian authorities seized cocaine worth about $259 million in a 2 1/2-year investigation, including 1,102 pounds on Christmas Day, in the nation's largest haul from a single cartel, officials announced Thursday.

In March, law enforcement seized 1,336 pounds from the same cartel in Tahiti headed for Australia.

Operation Okesi was a joint effort by Australian Federal Police, New South Wales Police and Australia's Border Force.

Fifteen men between 29 and 63 have been charged with drug importation, including businessman Darren Mohr, 42, and former Sydney Roosters rugby player John Tobin, 57.

"This job began with a thread of information to the NSW Police Force's Drug Squad 2 1/2 years ago," NSW Police Force State Crime Commander Mark Jenkins said beside a table piled high with cocaine bricks. "What has followed and the results achieved are a powerful example of the impact example of the impact made by the hard work and cooperation of [Australian police]."

AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Sheehan said they were confident "the entire group has been taken out."

"The size of that seizure collectively makes it the largest cocaine seizure in Australian law enforcement history," Sheehan said.

The cartel had been smuggling drugs into Sydney on commercial fishing boats.

In the latest haul, police followed a large commercial fishing boat out of Sydney Fish Markets to the New South Wales south coast.

On Christmas night, a one-man boat left the larger vessel and landed at Parsley Bay in Brooklyn, New South Whales.

Seven of the men were arrested and eight more were rounded up up in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania.

On Tuesday, authorities in the Philippines announced 1,962 pounds of methamphetamine with a street value of $120 million was seized in drug raids -- the largest haul ever in the nation.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/12/29/Record-259-million-worth-of-cocaine-seized-in-two-hauls-in-Australia/1271483052262/

$260M ‘cocaine cowboy’ put his whole life on social media

By News.com.au
December 30, 2016 | 12:26pm | Updated
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Darren Mohr Instagram

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY:





Helicopter rides, a Cobra sports car and a bikini model girlfriend were all part of the glamorous life caught on Instagram of one of the alleged members of Australia’s largest cocaine cartel.

Tattooed muscleman Darren Mohr’s glittering lifestyle, which he documented on social media, shows him sunning himself in exclusive locations, flying around in a helicopter, at a yacht club during the Monaco Grand Prix, and posing with luxury cars, his girlfriend and his pet dog and macaw.

His girlfriend is in no way implicated in the alleged drug importation.

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But Mohr’s high life all came to an end Tuesday when the 42-year-old was arrested and handcuffed on a footpath in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Mohr, who once owned a cafe which was featured on a hit reality show, is one of 15 men now in custody after police uncovered 1,100 pounds of cocaine on a boat in Sydney’s Parsley Bay.

If convicted, all the men potentially face life imprisonment for the alleged plot to import $260 million of cocaine from South America.
The massive drug plot came unstuck because police were tipped off by a member of the public who reported in 2014 that they had seen a man they believed was acting suspiciously.

For the next 30 months, undercover detectives allegedly surveilled the men at more than a hundred meetings in Sydney cafes and parks.

The Daily Telegraph revealed that at times more than a dozen police officers would watch key players using encrypted BlackBerries and talking in code as they allegedly plotted.

Police claim the alleged drug cartel was bringing the cocaine in from Chile via Tahiti and was using fishing trawlers based at the Sydney Fish Market.

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Darren MohrInstagram

The men were arrested on Christmas Day and the three days thereafter in Sydney, Queensland and Tasmania.

Police allege that in the lead-up to the arrests, the cartel members discussed map locations, recruits, drug finance and the movement of fishing vessels to transport the narcotics.

Mohr was arrested along with 1980s Roosters rugby league player John Tobin, commercial fisherman Joe Pirello, Double Bay businessman Richard Lipton, fisherman Stuart Ayrton and a New Zealand citizen, Graham Toa Toa.

The 15 men are in their 40s, 50s and 60s and include members of a well-respected fishing family.

The joint operation to uncover the alleged drug plot included officers from the New South Wales Police, Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force.

Police allege that the cartel members planned to send out the Sydney-based fishing trawlers to meet a larger ship carrying the drugs from Chile.

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Mohr with his girlfriendFacebook

NSW Police investigation co-ordinator Detective Chief Inspector Jason Smith described the lengthy police operation as extraordinary.

“From my perspective, the success of this operation has been the tenacity of the entire team and all the *officers involved. They have been extraordinary,” he told the Telegraph.

“My poor team has been the butt of many a joke as this investigation dragged on, often with little or no *results, but ultimately we can sit back quietly now and know that we were definitely onto something.”

Police will allege a 70-pound shipment of cocaine was intercepted in Fiji, but this did not deter the group, which further conspired to import three shipments between 880 pounds and 1,300 pounds of cocaine from South America.

The accused men are expected to next appear in a Sydney court in March.

http://nypost.com/2016/12/30/260m-co...-social-media/