Australia's biggest cocaine bust found hidden under Sydney property

Plastic tubs packed with 2.7 tonnes of cocaine were dug out from underground bunkers hidden beneath false floors and three shipping containers at a semi-rural property in Londonderry, near western Sydney. Police said the haul, found on Friday, June 19, was worth about A$816 million and would have been broken into roughly three million street-level deals.

The seizure is now Australia’s largest cocaine bust on record and exposes how deeply organised crime groups are prepared to bury both product and infrastructure in the country’s domestic market. Investigators said the drugs were allegedly imported near Midge Point in North Queensland and then moved to Sydney at the behest of a Sydney organised crime group, underlining a supply chain that stretched from a remote Queensland boat ramp to a concealed compound on Sydney’s outskirts.

The operation, known as Operation Minjiang, was led by the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce and began in May 2026 after 40kg of cocaine was found in water off a boat ramp at Midge Point following reports of a burnt-out flatbed truck. That case quickly widened: police later seized 178kg of cocaine and 142kg of methamphetamine, pushing the total amount of border-controlled drugs recovered in the operation to more than 3 tonnes.

Two men, aged 21 and 25, identified as a Plumpton man and a Liverpool man, allegedly tried to flee on foot when officers arrived at the Londonderry property. They were arrested and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Both were remanded in custody and are next due to appear before Penrith Local Court on August 13, 2026.

AFP Commander Stephen Jay said the seizure showed the scale and determination of organised crime networks, and said investigators would work with domestic and international partners to identify the syndicates and anyone else involved. The record haul also puts Australia’s cocaine market back under scrutiny after the AFP’s previous largest seizure, in December 2024, when 2.34 tonnes were intercepted off Queensland and 13 people were charged over an alleged transnational syndicate with links to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club’s Brisbane chapter.