Two men were charged after a 13kg methamphetamine importation from Germany was intercepted and neutralised in Sydney’s west.
The men appeared before the NSW Bail Division Court on 7th August and will return to court at a later date.
Australian Border Force officers examined a shipping container arriving in Sydney on 27th July and found the drugs concealed inside a vehicle transmission; five plastic bags of white powder that tested positive for methamphetamine.
The matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police, which replaced the drugs with an inert substance and ran a controlled delivery of the transmission to an industrial site in Girraween on the 6th August.
An 18-year-old Fairfield Heights man allegedly used false details to accept the consignment, then transported it to a street in Greystanes to hand it to a 41-year-old Oatlands man.
AFP investigators arrested the 41-year-old at the Greystanes handover; the teenager was arrested after a short foot pursuit when he and an unidentified third man fled the scene. That third man remains unidentified and inquiries are ongoing.
Both men are charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methamphetamine (s307.5(1), Criminal Code (Cth)).
The 41-year-old also faces the charge of importing a commercial quantity of methamphetamine (s307.1).
Both offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
AFP and ABF have flagged this as an escalating tactic across many commodity types, not just vehicle parts.
* Crane parts: 390kg meth hidden inside imported crane components in 2025 (https://afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/iranian-national-charged-relation-failed-390kg-meth-import)
* Marine engines: 140kg cocaine concealed inside two engines in 2025 (https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/queensland-man-charged-over-alleged-140kg-cocaine-importation-concealed).
* Mosaic tiles: 360kg meth impregnated into ~360 boxes of tiles from the Middle East, estimated street value $333 million in 2025 (https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/trio-arrested-over-plot-import-333m-meth-mosaic-tiles).
* Pickle jars: 115kg meth concealed inside jars shipped to Melbourne earlier this year (https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/australian-men-charged-over-alleged-failed-115kg-meth-importation).
* Canola oil: part of a $2 billion, 7.5-tonne liquid meth operation also earlier this year (https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/eight-men-jailed-over-global-crime-syndicates-failed-plot-traffic-17).
Rat poison/insecticide containers: ~1.1 tonnes of cocaine in mislabelled shipping containers from Panama back in 2022 (https://afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/authorities-seize-11-tonnes-cocaine-sent-sydney-labelled-rat-poison-and).
📸 and reference ABF & AFP
