Cocaine, Ecstasy Shipped

Officials in Australia say they have bust a major international drug syndicate involving five Canadian men after a routine check by customs officers uncovered 135 kilograms of cocaine and 120,000 Ecstasy tablets hidden in computer equipment. 

A Canadian man was arrested while trying to get the drugs, Australian Federal Police said early today. 

Four others were detained in police raids across Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland.  An Australian man police said was connected to the suspects was arrested in Sydney. 

Police put the value of the cocaine at $30-million and said the Ecstacy tablets were worth $3.5-million. 

Customs chief executive officer Michael Carmody said it was a sophisticated attempt to beat Australia's border controls. 

"This operation has again demonstrated the value of customs container X-ray facilities, which are located in all of Australia's major sea cargo ports," Mr.  Carmody said. 

Australian agents were working with RCMP to break what is believed to be an international syndicate, the police spokesman said. 

Customs targeted the container for inspection at its X-ray facility in Brisbane on Sept.  8. 

The container -- which originated in Delta, B.C.  -- held 420 computer monitors. 

Analysis of the X-ray images prompted customs officers to unpack the shipment.  Inside 33 of the monitors, officers discovered 136 sealed packets of cocaine and 36 packets of Ecstasy tablets. 

After the drugs were substituted for an inert substance, federal police investigators identified the men allegedly responsible for the importation and tracked their movements. 

The shipment was the second seized in four months from Canada.  The first was the seizure of 1.2 million Ecstasy tablets in Melbourne in June that resulted in four arrests. 

Mike Phelan, the Australian Federal Police's national manager: border and international network, called the seizure of two large consignments of drugs from Canada in such a short period of time unusual. 

The five Canadian men --ranging in age from 25 to 39 -- have been charged with a number of offences, including importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.  A 62-year-old Sydney man has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. 

The maximum penalty for offences of this kind is a fine of $825,000 and/or life imprisonment. 

The suspects were to appear in court today. 

The seizure is the largest interception of cocaine in Australia since July, 2001, when nearly one tonne of the drug was seized off Western Australia.