Overview

• On July 8, Australian Border Force officers stopped two French nationals, aged 19 and 20, arriving from Southeast Asia after intelligence flagged their multi-leg travel pattern.
• A search of their luggage uncovered 32 individually wrapped bricks of white powder that tested presumptive for methamphetamine, with an estimated street value exceeding $29 million.
• Each woman was charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled substance and remanded in Brisbane Magistrates Court, facing a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and due back in court on September 5.
• Acting ABF Commander Troy Sokoloff said the operation demonstrated how frontline officers use travel-pattern analysis to detect and disrupt syndicate operations.
• AFP Acting Superintendent Natalie Scott attributed the success to close collaboration between the Australian Border Force and federal police in intercepting large-scale drug importation plots.