An innocent Australian who bought one of 54 shipping containers that held $200million of illegal drugs imported from China has yet to be identified.
The drugs squad has seized all but one of the containers which entered Australia during the past two years carrying legitimate cargo but with more than 600kg of heroin, methylamphetamine and the precursor drug pseudoephedrine stashed inside.
Strike Force Garner was created in December after the recipient of one of the containers noticed it had been tampered with. Police began seizing the containers across Sydney and greater NSW, finding each contained about 12kg-15kg of drugs.
Half of the containers were seized at a storage yard at Padstow, in Sydney's south-west, while the other 27 were emptied of their legitimate contents and sold to unsuspecting business people.
The drugs squad acting commander Steve Patton said required purchase records helped detectives locate all but one container, which was sold on by a Pambula man on the NSW Far South Coast. Police believe the buyers had no knowledge of the drugs embedded inside the frames of the containers.
Detectives don't know what went wrong with the syndicate or how it lost track of the containers, but they are looking at suspects in China and Australia. Police seized almost 60kg of methylamphetamine valued at about $40million.
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