Sources confirm that Australia’s largest cocaine haul, a 2.3-tonne shipment seized in Sydney this week, was not a stroke of luck. It was the result of a shadowy collaboration between British intelligence and the Australian Federal Police, using tactics honed in the UK’s war on organised crime.
The bunker, a fortified warehouse in the suburb of Bankstown, was the nerve centre of a syndicate that had been flooding the country with Colombian product. Documents uncovered by this newsroom reveal that British officers from the National Crime Agency provided real-time surveillance and cryptographic analysis. This is the same playbook used to crack encrypted networks like EncroChat.
The seizure, valued at over $1 billion AUD, is a victory for transatlantic policing. But it raises uncomfortable questions. Who else is watching?
And what power do they wield?