Man jailed for cocaine shipment worth £30m sent to him from Mexican cartel

A man has been jailed after police intercepted a massive cocaine shipment sent from a Mexican drug cartel.

Police in Sydney, Australia intercepted the whopping 188kg load of gear worth AUS$47million (£27.3m) back in 2019.

Yesterday (August 19) a 50-year-old man from Picnic Point, Sydney was sentenced to nine years in prison in relation to the bust.

READ MORE: Mexican army arrests 167 cartel members in 'biggest op ever' – but it soon backfires

He must serve five years behind bars before he can apply for parole, according to 9News.

The man was caught after police observed him moving hundreds of aluminium ingots, trying to access the cocaine that he thought was hidden inside of them.

Little did he know that police had already swooped in and seized the drugs before he had a chance to grab them.

He was actually already in prison for an unrelated offence when he was charged, and pleaded guilty to various drugs-related crimes on April 29.

According to AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Luke Wilson, the high demand for cocaine in Australia is making it a target market for international trafficking organisations in South America.

He said: "The high demand for cocaine in Australia is at the forefront of our battle with organised crime syndicates; they see that big dollar sign over Australia and know the profit they can make is substantially more than any other target market."

Police also said that this cocaine shipment, as well as most seized by police down under, originated from Colombia and other parts of South America.

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Most cocaine production occurs in South American countries before it is moved up to Central America and trafficked all over the world by dominant Mexican cartels.

According to Insight Crime, Honduras in particular has become proliferated with coca farms as of late, with authorities destroying some 543,000 coca plants between January and March this year – 11,000 more than in the whole of 2021.

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