Australian police uncover 3 tons of cocaine

In this photo provided by the Australian Federal Police, a man, center, is arrested by police in Londonderry in western Sydney, Friday, June 19, 2026. Australian Federal Police via AP hide caption toggle caption Australian Federal Police via AP MELBOURNE, Australia — Police found 2.7 metric tons (3 tons) of cocaine on a property on Sydney's outskirts in Australia's largest ever seizure of the drug, officials said on Monday. The drug was found on June 19 in plastic tubs buried in underground bunkers hidden beneath three shipping containers on a semirural property in the suburb of Londonderry on Sydney's western edge, the Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce said in a statement. The containers had false floors that provided access to the cocaine, which police estimate had a street value of 816 million Australian dollars ($572 million). Two Sydney residents, men aged 21 and 25, were arrested at the property and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an illicit drug. They face potential sentences of life in prison. Australia's previous record cocaine haul was 2.34 metric tons (2.58 tons) seized in 2024 from a fishing boat near K'gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, off the Queensland state coast. Police said the cocaine found in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state and Australia's most populous city, landed by boat at Midge Point in the sparsely-populated Queensland tropics. …