$50 million meth load hidden in ugly wooden cabinet from Canada

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Police in Australia are trying to trace a charmless chipboard cabinet sent from Canada to Sydney after nearly $50 million worth of meth was found inside a hidden compartment.

A multi-agency task force in Australia has issued a public appeal for information from anyone who recognizes the cabinet that was sent by sea cargo from Canada and arrived in Sydney on May 9.

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Cheaply made of chipboard, also known as particle board, with a white veneer over its two top drawers and two bottom cupboards, the cabinet’s ordinariness might have made it suspicious — who pays to have such a thing shipped some 7,000 nautical miles?

It did have one special feature: a false backing that leaves a small hidden space behind what looks like the back of the cabinet, similar to a false bottom in a smuggler’s suitcase.

The cabinet didn’t get far once it landed.

Australian Border Force officers examined the furniture and noticed the anomaly. The backing was pulled away, revealing its secret.

Squished into the secret space, held in place by gobs of glue, were four metallic silver bags, police said. Each silver bag contained two clear plastic bags filled with white crystalline powder.

Investigators said the substance tested positive for methamphetamine.

The meth weighed about 60 kilograms. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) estimated the retail value of the load, if sold on Australia’s streets, to be $54 million in Australian currency, which is about $47 million Canadian.

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Police have not revealed where in Canada it originated, but large shipments sent to Sydney by sea usually depart from Vancouver, although the cabinet could have been sent to B.C. by land from anywhere in Canada to be loaded onto an ocean-going container ship.

The consignment was addressed to a Chinese national at an address in Western Australia, police said.

“We are certain there are people in Australia who know something about this importation, either as the receiver or future distributer,” said Detective Superintendent Stuart Cadden, commander of Taskforce Phobetor, a joint operation targeting serious organized crime in New South Wales, which includes the city of Sydney.

“By now, these people might be concerned that their drugs have not arrived.”

He said investigators are tracing the cabinet to determine how the load was imported and to identify those responsible.

Demand for meth in Australia is high and it sells for a higher price than in Canada. A 2023 wastewater analysis showed that Australia had the third highest methamphetamine consumption per capita among 24 countries tested.

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Canada has been a frequent source of some of Australia’s large loads of illicit drugs, suggesting well-resourced transnational crime networks have linked operations in both countries.

In May, a Canadian man accused of being part of a transnational drug trafficking network smuggling drugs from Canada into Australia was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Australia.

In that plot, large quantities of meth was hidden inside enormous commercial dough mixers and shipped by air from Toronto to both Melbourne and Sydney. The hidden stash was discovered at Toronto’s airport by Canada Border Services Agency officers.

In the mixer case, the RCMP and AFP investigators worked together to replace the drugs with an inert substance and let the mixers continue on their journey for police in Australia to arrest whoever picked them up. Six men were arrested. Some had ties to an outlaw motorcycle club and an Asian organized crime syndicate.

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In February, a 22-year-old Canadian man allegedly fought with Australian police when he was being arrested as a suspect in an international drug syndicate. Police say he arrived in Perth, the largest city in Western Australia, to collect a shipment containing methamphetamine.

A year ago, Australian authorities announced the country’s largest known fentanyl shipment arrived from Canada hidden in an industrial lathe shipped by sea from Vancouver, Australian police said. Police appealed for information on that shipment, as well.

Also last August, police said large loads of cocaine and meth, worth an estimated $135 million, were found hidden inside a vintage Bentley luxury car that was sent in a shipping container from Canada to Sydney.

CBSA declined to comment on specific cases or investigations but a spokeswoman said the agency works closely with law enforcement in Australia as part of the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance that also includes New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“By means of numerous information sharing agreements, the CBSA engages with Australia and our other Five Eyes partners to stop the export and import of illegal goods. The agency’s collaboration with international partners is increasingly important in the face of ever changing threats,” said Rebecca Purdy with the CBSA.

The RCMP said it needed more time before it could provide any comment.

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