A kilogram brick of cocaine was discovered beyond the waves at one of Australia’s most famous beach.
The tightly-wrapped package was found about 1km off North Bondi Beach by a lifeguard on New Years Day.
The lifeguard handed the package into police, adding it to the more than 170kg of cocaine that has washed up on beaches from Sydney to Newcastle since December 23.
Police have urged citizens not to treat the spate of discoveries as a ‘treasure hunt’, warning that anyone caught with one of the mysterious packages would be charged with being in possession of a ‘large commercial quantity’ of narcotics.
The NSW State Crime Command have taken over investigations into who the packages were intended for and why they’re washing ashore.
The lifeguard handed the package into police, adding it to the more than 170kg of cocaine that has washed up on beaches from Sydney to Newcastle since December 23 (stock image)
The tightly-wrapped package was found about 1km off North Bondi Beach (pictured) by a lifeguard on New Years Day
The first barnacle-covered package of about 39kg was discovered on Magenta Beach, on the state’s Central Coast, with six more packages of varying amounts being found on beaches from Newcastle to Sydney the following day.
A further 39 bricks of cocaine were found on Boxing day by a fisherman at Barrenjoey Headland, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
That same day another 39 kilos were found at the Newcastle Ocean Baths.
‘If someone is caught in possession of one of these bricks, it’s a large commercial quantity and that carries 25 years to life imprisonment, so its a significant penalty,’ NSW Police State Crime Command director Jason Weinstein told the ABC on Saturday.
‘We don’t know what the purity of that is just yet, we don’t know what is mixed in with that, there’s a whole range of unknowns.’
Anyone who comes across an object they suspect of containing cocaine has been urged not to touch or open it and instead contact police.
Investigations into how the cocaine ended up on Aussie shores are continuing with theories including the packages being thrown off a cargo ship or being dislodged from an anchor by Cyclone Jasper.
One of the mystery packages of drugs is pictured washed up at Newcastle baths
Police have warned the public not to go searching for the packages as they will be charged with possessing a ‘large commercial quantity’ of narcotics (pictured, package found on the Central Coast)
‘We know syndicates will use a number of methods through shipping containers,’ Detective Chief Inspector Weinstein said.
‘Sometimes we do see where items are deliberately tossed into the ocean to be picked up by another vessel.’
The National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) found an average of 910mg of cocaine was being consumed everyday by every one in 1,000 Sydneysiders, the highest amount in the country.
In December, 2021, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found a post-Covid record of 275 people were arrested statewide for cocaine possession.
The majority of Sydney’s cocaine-related arrests were made in the city’s CBD and eastern suburbs with Randwick and Waverley taking the bulk of the arrests.
