Almost a dozen innocent businesses - including a NSW council - have been caught up in a multi-million dollar drug bust, after the alleged importers lost track of their shipment.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Police seized more than 300kg of pseudoephedrine hidden in 15 shipping containers across several sites in NSW yesterday.
Four other drug-filled containers were discovered on December 7 after a tip-off from a member of the public.
The pseudoephedrine, which had been packed into metal tubes and then hidden in the containers' frames, had the potential to make up to $75 million worth of the illegal drug ice.
Police said the containers, seemingly unbeknown to the traffickers, were emptied of their cargo and sold to legitimate businesses in NSW with the drugs still inside.
''These people were unaware of what was contained within the frame of the containers,'' Detective Inspector Steve Patton said.
''A lot of people were just using them for storage on farms, a lot were in rural NSW - I believe Wagga Wagga council was actually using one of the containers.''
