Transport Ministry to identify, probe port that shipped heroin to Australia

PUTRAJAYA: The port responsible for shipping 336kg of heroin worth about RM790 million from Malaysia to Brisbane, Australia, will be identified and investigated.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke gave his assurance that the ministry will probe the port used by a cartel to ship the prohibited items, described by Australia as the second biggest shipment ever detected for heroin.

However, Loke said they have yet to receive any information on the case that involved drugs found in a shipping container sent from here to Brisbane on March 13.

"It is a serious offence to use our ports to ship cargoes containing illicit items.

"We will seek information on which port and it will be probed," he said after attending the National Logistics Task Force Meeting today.

Australia said a seizure by the Australian Border Force (ABF) on March 13 found the drugs hidden in two blocks of concrete weighing 500kg each.

Police said the consignment was declared as solar panel accessories and had arrived in Brisbane on the same day from Malaysia.

Police investigators and ABF officers who drilled into the cement blocks recovered 960 packets each containing about 350g of heroin.

It then allowed the consignment to continue on to the address listed on its paperwork in Brendale, north Brisbane, on March 28.

The next day, intelligence showed the consignment was accepted by a local man who was using a rented truck and it travelled on to Sydney and delivered to an industrial shed in Mount Druitt on March 30.

The 55-year-old returned to the shed the next day with industrial tools to cut into the concrete and access the heroin hidden inside the display stands.

He was arrested and police seized jewellery worth an estimated A$700,000 from the Auburn man's home as well as electronic devices.

Police investigators then executed a series of search warrants at businesses and homes in New South Wales and Queensland, including at Brendale in Queensland and Mount Druitt, Blacktown, Auburn, Cecil Park and Constitution Hill in NSW.

Items seized from other locations included mobile phones, cash, hard drives, notebooks and other parts of the reconstructed consignment.