Even the mob needs decent tradesmen. It makes sense but still sounds funny — gangland mechanics
are out there, wielding grinders not guns, welders not weapons. And even though just hired hands
they now stand in court as gangsters, facing the full force of the law, including life in prison
The Mob Reporter here with news of three transnational organized crime syndicates
that each found an unusual way to utilize blue-collar skills to move white powder
with all roads from Britain, Colombia, Spain, Switzerland, and the Middle East leading to
Australia, to fill their red-hot demand. It's red, white, and blue! Let me tell you about it
When police in Australia moved to shut this syndicate down, the alleged gangsters didn't go
quietly. As tactical police officers were moving in on a property in rural Cawdor, southwest of Sydney
where their shipment was allegedly unpacked, suspects left in two vehicles: a Mercedes van
and a Pantech truck. A police helicopter tracked them, and cops on the ground set up a roadblock
This is video of the takedown from the air. Police say the driver of the truck thought he
was loaded down with bricks of coke and rammed several cop cars, trying to smash through the
roadblock. After a short chase both vehicles were stopped. The bricks they had, however, had already
been replaced by police, likely back in England. At stake, police said, was 125 kilos of coke that was
carefully concealed in a purpose-built space at the base of an industrial diesel generator, before
being shipped by air from London's Heathrow Airport into Sydney, Australia. The machinery
is massive. I'd love to see the bill for that delivery. This was all announced July 20, 2022.
For this one Aussie cops hooked up with colleagues in Britain, the National Crime Agency, known as NCA
and the UK Border Force. The probe started in the UK based on information culled from a big sting
when the FBI and Australian police convinced criminals to use the AN0M encrypted phone app
Around the same time as the argy-bargy on the highway, police in England were also on
the move. Here's video of some of the arrests in Britain from an officer's body-worn camera
"Right, NCA, step out of the vehicle. Right, this time you're under arrest for conspiracy to export Class A
Hands behind your back. You don't have to say anything that may harm your defense. If you don't mention in my questions
something which later on in court and anything you do so maybe given in evidence. Do you understand that?"
NCA officers executed search warrants around southeast England. Three men were arrested there
British police allege they are rare gangland specialists, part of an underworld network of
skilled manufacturing tradesmen who create unusual and sophisticated hiding spots for
contraband inside machinery for other crime groups. Police say they found a second diesel generator in
a building in South Ockenden, Essex, just outside greater London. It had a similar hidden cavity —
this one empty. The least surprising part of this transnational plot was that dope was headed to
Australia. Drugs are in high demand down under and command a premium price. Perhaps the most
surprising part is where they came from. Britain is usually the final destination for shipments that
make it out of South America and into Continental Europe. Getting it into Britain already means
added costs and risks from additional border crossings. So Britain is an unexpected source to
send drugs to Australia — and that's probably what the narcos were banking on to avoid
scrutiny. But as high as the price and demand are in Britain, consider this: The street value of this
shipment was estimated by police in Britain to be about 24 million US Dollars; police in Australia
meanwhile said the same load had a street value there of 35 million US Dollars. That's
an 11 million dollar jump in value between Britain and Australia. Gangsters can do math and also weld
This case is remarkably reminiscent of a 2020 case. At that time an X-ray at the border of a
large excavator arriving in Australia from England revealed anomalies within the arm of
the industrial digger. Cutting through the metal border agents found 450 kilos of MDMA inside
In a separate case, work crews with a different skill set were part of an
even larger transnational criminal network. It was overseen by Colombians. Colombia is
the main source for the world's coke so direct involvement of Colombian narcos is significant
Police say a custom, clandestine laboratory was built in rural Australia to extract and produce
salable powdered coke from liquid substances. The liquid base was imported into Australia
suspended in another unidentified substance. From Sydney, it was moved north to a clandestine lab
hidden in a shed off the beaten path in Durong in Queensland. Durong has a population of just a
few hundred people. Nine people were pinched in this probe in three different Australian states
officials announced on July 22, 2022. Included in that are two men allegedly caught at the lab. Now
this pair was the key to it all. They were both originally from Colombia and police said they
were the chemical specialists. One of the men was a dual Spanish-Colombian citizen. This 48 year old
flew to Australia and was met at the airport by a Colombian-born resident of Sydney who was 38. The
younger Colombian man wasn't the best partner in the end. Investigators say he was already known to
police and his involvement attracted attention — and was the trigger for the whole probe. The Colombian
pair traveled north, a 10-hour drive to the Gold Coast, to meet a man who allegedly organized the
construction of the clandestine lab. Officers also raided the home of a man in Darwin, that's almost
clear across the country, about 2,500 miles from Sydney. A 33-year-old man was arrested
there and at his home police seized stacks of cash, electronic devices, and a 25-foot-long boat
Investigators are now looking into whether the boat was used to collect illicit cargo that was
dumped at sea off the coast. One 33 year old man was arrested after being stopped driving back to
Sydney from the area of the lab. Police found 11 kilos of coke in his SUV concealed in two
small bar fridges; and a 32-year-old woman was arrested in her home in Brisbane where police
seized more than a million in cash. And then there was an alleged transnational syndicate
operating out of Perth, on Australia's West Coast. Police there found 66 kilos of coke hidden in
four Mercedes-Benz performance car tires imported into Australia by air from Switzerland. An X-ray of
the tires revealed something weird, and white packages were found behind the rims. Officers
pulled out the coke, repacked the tires with a harmless substance and sent them on their way
The tires sat in a garage for two days with police watching before a man and a woman who lived there
arrived with two other men, who then allegedly used several tools and knives to cut away the
tires to reveal the black-wrapped packages. Those four were arrested on July 8, 2022. A few days later
police announced a coda to the operation: A father and son from Sydney who police said have links to
Middle Eastern organized crime were arrested and charged in the tire plot. 53-year-old pops and 25
year old sonny arrived from Sydney to collect the packages that had been pulled out of the tires at
that home. After leaving with bags and a box, pops and sonny stopped at a hotel. They allegedly
tested one of the bricks and must have realized they were fake. Just imagine their panic, perhaps
wondering if it was an underworld rip or a police sting. They quickly dumped all the bricks from the
tires in an industrial waste bin at a shopping center parking lot and as they left the lot were
swarmed by cops. This is where the rubber really hit the road. Thanks for watching, please subscribe