Police seize a TON of ecstasy pills
| quote: | Police Seize a Ton of Ecstasy in Tiles
Fri Apr 15, 8:40 AM ET
Australian authorities recovered more than 2,240 pounds of ecstasy tablets hidden in a shipment of ceramic tiles in one of the world's largest seizures of street-ready drugs, police said Friday.
The shipment of five million ecstasy tablets, known chemically as MDMA, arrived in the southern Australian city of Melbourne from Italy earlier in the week, said police, who valued the drugs at $192 million.
"Clearly, this was a major shipment involving a well organized syndicate that was aiming to put a massive amount of tablets onto Australian streets," Victoria state customs official Jaclyne Fisher said in a statement.
Customs said an X-ray of the shipment revealed anomalies inside eight pallets of tiles and an inspection found dozens of packets containing millions of tablets, weighing just over a ton.
The previous largest Australian ecstasy haul occurred in November 2004 in Sydney, when some 1,800 pounds of ecstasy tablets and powder were seized, said Australian Federal Police (AFP).
"Over the past two years the AFP has seen a dramatic increase in the importation of ecstasy into Australia," AFP agent Mike Phelan said in a statement.
Four people have been charged in connection with the shipment and will appear before the Melbourne Magistrate's Court Friday. |
Source: http://beta.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ia_ecstasy_dc_1
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