Timothy John Engstrom and Adam Phillip Hunter, of Queanbeyan, are accused of importing an excavator with 384 blocks of cocaine, each weighing about one kilogram, hidden inside.

Australian Border Force officers intercepted the second-hand machine when it arrived from South Africa last year, and with the help of police spent two days removing the drugs from the arm and substituting them for an inert substance.

The authorities then sent the digger on to Mr Hunter's business, Bungendore Landscape Supplies, which they allege was its intended destination.

Police then watched, waited and gathered evidence before heavily armed officers stormed the business on July 14 last year and arrested Mr Hunter and Mr Engstrom.

The pair were subsequently charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and attempting to possess a border controlled drug.

Their case has since progressed slowly through the Queanbeyan Local Court, where it was mentioned on Tuesday morning.

Mr Engstrom intends to fight the charges and his lawyer, Robert Candelori, told the court he was eager to be committed for trial.

"We want to proceed," Mr Candelori said on Tuesday.

"It's been dragging on now for more than a year."

But the court heard there were "outstanding forensics issues" with implications for Mr Hunter.

His lawyer, Andrew Chakrabarty, sought an adjournment to discuss new evidence with his client, but said it was "likely" that Mr Hunter would also plead not guilty and proceed to trial.

The court heard that prosecutors intended for Mr Engstrom and Mr Hunter to stand trial jointly, and initial estimates were that a trial would run for four or five weeks.

Magistrate Roger Clisdell adjourned the case to September 8, saying he hoped both men would be ready for committal on that date.

Mr Engstrom is on bail after securing his release with a $500,000 surety late last year, while Mr Hunter remains in custody on remand in Goulburn.

When the pair were arrested, police said the cocaine was linked to an organised crime syndicate.

While the seizure was conducted in NSW, it was overseen by ACT Policing in the largest drug interception operation the force has ever coordinated.

"It is clear to us that this group thought bringing drugs into our district in this type of machinery would avoid police interest," then-ACT chief police officer Ray Johnson said in July last year.

"How wrong they were."

Border Force acting deputy commissioner of operations Sharon Huey told media at the time that the concealment of the drugs inside the excavator arm was "incredibly sophisticated".

"To put this in perspective, in the 2017-18 financial year approximately 795kg of cocaine were detected at the border," she said.

"This concealment of 384kg represents almost half of that previous year's total detection of cocaine."