Police have arrested the alleged ringleader behind an apparently botched smuggling operation in which 900kg of cocaine bricks were swept along Australia’s east coast.
Australian Federal Police officers allege that Daniel Wayne John Roberts is the Australian leader of the international drug traffickers who failed to collect the illegal shipment.
In the weeks that followed, countless mysterious bricks wrapped in plastic were found on the New South Wales coast as they floated with the tide.
On Wednesday, police swooped on an address in Brisbane’s northern suburbs where Roberts, 36, was arrested and will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday.
He faces seven charges related to the importation of commercial quantities of drugs and trafficking in the proceeds of crime, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The Aspley man was also charged with a further 12 offenses of using violence and threats to collect debts and intimidate rivals by engaging criminal associates to assault, bomb, shoot and extort his clients.
Police believe they have arrested the Australian ringleader behind a botched drug importation that left cocaine “bricks” on the east coast.
AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer speaks to the media during a press conference about the arrest at AFP headquarters in Brisbane.
The first of the tightly wrapped and taped packages of cocaine were found on Magenta Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast in December, when police opened the barnacle-encrusted outer plastic and found 39′ bricks. which contained 39 kg of cocaine.
Seven separate packages of around 7kg of cocaine were discovered at Magenta Beach, Pelican Beach, Blacksmith Beach, Avoca Beach, Pentaloon Bay and Manly’s North Steyne Beach over the festive season.
A fisherman removed a blue barrel containing a further 39 individually wrapped 1kg bricks of cocaine on Boxing Day before handing it over to police.
Large bundles containing tightly wrapped bricks turned up along the Sydney coast and as far north as Newcastle late last year.
Later that day, a member of the public found 39 more 1kg bricks individually sealed in rocks near Newcastle Ocean Baths and also handed them over to police.
The cocaine bricks have been marked with labels including Tesla, Zoe and RZ.
Earlier this month, cocaine was still washing up on beaches in New South Wales, with lifeguards finding five more, worth an estimated $1 million, on Sydney’s Freshwater and Curl Curl beaches.
So far, NSW Police have seized around 256kg of the suspected 900kg after they washed ashore.
“It is understandable that the community became concerned when cocaine reached the beaches, beaches where our children play, swim and eat,” Superintendent Adrian Telfer told AFP.
“The AFP and our partners dedicated significant resources to ensuring the safety of the public and bringing those alleged responsible to court.”
Detectives allege Roberts used dedicated encrypted communications platforms to outsource drug collection and conceal his criminal activities from police.
He is alleged to have used the nicknames WANTED and John Dillinger, the same name as the famous American gangster during the Great Depression.
The AFP will also allege that the man played a major role in the importation of almost two tonnes of cocaine in just three companies over the past year, which have a total estimated street value of $683 million.