A bid to import $283 million of methamphetamine into Australia has been thwarted with four Melbourne men charged over the plot.
Australian Federal Police arrested the group after more than 300 kilograms of the drug was found concealed in a six-tonne hydraulic press.
Australian Border Force officers found the drugs in June during a search of a consignment sent from the United States.
An X-Ray of the consignment showed anomalies and when officers drilled into the machine they found a white, crystal-like substance.
Several wooden boxes hidden in the hydraulic press were found, with a total of 306kg of methamphetamine allegedly concealed inside the boxes.
The AFP said they removed the illicit drugs and tracked the consignment until it was transported to a factory in Campbellfield, Victoria, on July 30.
Police will allege a group of men used electric tools and equipment over several days in an attempt to access the drugs they expected to find.
The men were arrested on Saturday at the Campbellfield factory and police raided properties in Noble Park, Narre Warren and Campbellfield in Victoria, federal police said on Monday.
Officers also searched a property in Wollstonecraft in NSW where they located and seized items allegedly relating to the importation and attempted possession.
A Noble Park man, 19, a Narre Warren man, 20, and a Lynbrook man, 18, will face the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday, each charged with attempting to possess the 306kg methamphetamine shipment.
A 17-year-old from Noble Park has been charged with the same offence and is expected to appear in the Melbourne Children’s Court on Friday.
AFP Commander Raegan Stewart said methamphetamine was the second most consumed illicit drug in Australia.
“This amount of methamphetamine could have been sold as more than three million individual street deals, and we cannot overstate the community harm this would have caused if it had not been intercepted by authorities," Cmdr Stewart said.
“The AFP estimates about 350 drug-related hospitalisations were likely prevented by stopping this amount of methamphetamine from reaching our communities."
This bust follows a near $1 billion methamphetamine shipment seized from two large machines in a shipping container at Sydney's Port Botany in July.
That shipment was also sourced from the United States before authorities removed the drugs and delivered the machines to a premises at Warwick Farm, in the city's west, leading to the arrest of two men.
