Australia smashes drug ring ‘The Commission’, seizes cocaine worth US$1 billion

Australian police said on Thursday they had smashed a drug trafficking ring dubbed “The Commission” that brought more than a tonne of cocaine into the country in just a few months.

Six men aged between 25 and 34 were arrested in raids that turned up more than 30 kilograms of cocaine, including 20 kilograms that had been stuffed in a bag and tossed over a fence.

Police alleged this was a mere fraction of the total supply, alleging the group had shifted 1.2 tonnes of cocaine between February and July this year.

Police claimed that the street value of the drugs was about US$1 billion.

Organised crime detective Peter Faux said the group had “played the role of government, bank and economy to Sydney’s criminal underworld,” through an ambitious pace of cocaine imports.