Australian police say they expect more arrests will be made here in Canada following this week's huge drug bust in Brisbane involving more than $30 million worth of cocaine and ecstasy. Five B.C. men and an Australian face drug smuggling charges after being arrested in the capital of the state of Queensland on Wednesday.
The seized computer monitors, some of which contained cocaine and ecstasy in a shipment from B.C. Australian customs officials found the drugs on Sept. 8, stuffed into computer monitors in a shipping container that originated in the Lower Mainland.
Bruce Hill, who is in charge of international operations for the Australian Federal Police, told CBC News that he believes more arrests are imminent."We have a federal police officer from Washington in Canada working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I'm sure, as a result of that, we'll definitely get some very good results out of this."Australian suspect known to police
Hill says the mastermind behind the cocaine import scheme is a well-known organized crime figure in Sydney.
"We will allege in court that he was the intended recipient and financier of this operation from the Australian side. Now we've got inquiries going in Canada to try and establish who the principals are over there."
The five B.C. men arrested in Brisbane have been identified as Dennis Paul Paddison, 40, of Abbotsford; Dereck Hotner, 34, also of Abbotsford;,, 40; Matthew Reed, 26; and Kelsey Nerbas, 28. Nerbas, who had been living in Australia, is a former resident of Kelowna, B.C.All five remain in custody and are next scheduled to appear in court in November. The smuggling charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
This is the second recent drug bust in Australia involving a shipping container from Canada.
Four months ago, Australian authorities seized 1.2 million ecstasy tablets from a container in Melbourne, and arrested one man in Melbourne and three men in Sydney.
Michael Carmody, the CEO of the Australian Customs Service, says the two sets of arrests should serve as a warning.
"It does seem that people believe that by shipping goods through what would be seen as a friendly benign country in this area, they thought that they would avoid our scrutiny, and they haven't, and that's probably a message for others who might like to try that."
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