South Australian authorities seize 28kg of cocaine hidden in luxury bus
Authorities have found more than 28kg of cocaine on a luxury bus in South Australia, concealed behind the vehicle’s television.
The discovery came after Australian Border Force (ABF) officers intercepted a vessel berthed at Outer Harbor, examining a roll-on/roll-off vessel on Monday 16 February.
A forensic search using technology including videoscopes and detector dogs, identified “several one-kilogram packages of a white powdered substance hidden behind a television inside a luxury bus,” Australian federal police (AFP) said in a statement.
Border force officers referred the detection to the AFP who seized the illicit drugs and commenced their inquiries.
This amount of cocaine, had it reached the Australian community, had an estimated street value of about $9m, with the potential for about 140,000 street-level deals.
AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Simon Lalic said the AFP – together with its state, Commonwealth and international law enforcement partners – was committed to disrupting and dismantling organised criminal syndicates threatening Australia. He said:
Criminals are driven by their own greed and profit and will attempt any method to import harmful illicit substance into our country. No matter how creative these criminals attempt to be, our message is clear – we are on to you.
It’s been six months since Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ productivity roundtable and the economists, business heads and union figures who attended are feeling cautiously optimistic, AAP reports.
Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood hopes the roundtable laid the foundation for a broader set of changes in the budget and beyond.
Dr Chalmers did an “amazing job” of marshalling disparate views, finding consensus in the room and communicating it to the public, according to ANU Crawford School of Economics and Government research fellow Shiro Armstrong.
Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally says the budget must build on the momentum of the roundtable and eventually result in a set of proposals to take to the next election.
While declining to be interviewed, Dr Chalmers says via a statement the budget will be the “main game” for economic reform.
Following Labor’s landslide election win and with the maximum distance until voters return to the polls, the timing of the budget is ripe for genuine reform, in the view of independent MP Allegra Spender. She says:
If you’re ever going to do something meaningful, this is the budget to do it, because it’s the budget where you can take the greatest risk.
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog this Sunday.
The Australian federal police has seized more than 28kg of cocaine hidden behind a television on a luxury bus in South Australia.
Meanwhile, guests of Jim Chalmers’ productivity roundtable are urging the treasurer to be bold in the May budget, acknowledging the government has already taken some important steps.
The Winter Olympics is coming to a close – Australia’s most successful campaign to date with six medallists decorated. Moguls champion Cooper Woods and aerial skiing silver medal winner Danielle Scott were selected as the flag bearers for the closing ceremony to take place in Verona in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Parents in NSW will be able to access a new personalised childhood vaccination schedule tool launched today by the state government amid increasing cases of measles circulating in the community and decreasing immunisation rates.
Amid heightened immigration tensions in Canberra, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, will appear on the ABC’s Insiders.
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