{"id":5139,"date":"2017-01-18T08:35:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T13:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2017-01-18T08:35:34","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T13:35:34","slug":"six-arrested-60m-cocaine-boat-bust-off-tasmania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/01\/18\/six-arrested-60m-cocaine-boat-bust-off-tasmania\/","title":{"rendered":"Six arrested over $60m cocaine boat bust off Tasmania"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six men have been arrested over a plot to smuggle more than $60 million worth of cocaine into Australia in an ex-Japanese whaling vessel.<\/p>\n

Police said they will have to trawl through thousands of telephone intercepts in their case against the men.<\/p>\n

The six were arrested during 15 raids across Victoria and Queensland on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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They are accused of trying to import 186kg of cocaine that was seized from the 50-metre former whaling boat on December 12.<\/p>\n

The alleged syndicate had been under surveillance for about a year before the boat was intercepted in international waters near Hobart on December 12, police said.<\/p>\n

They described the vessel as a “mothership” from where, it is alleged, the intended drug deals were to be carried out off the coast of Tasmania.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Four of the men, Omer Tok, 39, Mohamed Kaddour, 47, Christopher Peroulis, 48, and Youssif Tawfik, 25, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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None of the four charged with attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine applied for bail and they were all remanded in custody until May.<\/p>\n

In court, Australian Federal Police asked for extra time to go through the evidence against the men.<\/p>\n

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“There are … probably thousands of listening devices and telephone intercepts that need to be transcribed, and in a few cases interpreted,” a federal prosecutor told the court.<\/p>\n

He said the charges involved a ship that was registered internationally.<\/p>\n

In Queensland, Vasilious Triantafilopoulos appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court where an order was made to extradite him to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Moshey Youkhana will also be extradited to Melbourne after he faced the Southport Magistrates Court.<\/p>\n

Earlier in Melbourne on Wednesday AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters at a press conference that the men were part of a “well-funded, determined and significant” organised crime cell.<\/p>\n

The cocaine, which has not yet been tested for purity, found on the ship was wrapped in plastic bricks labelled with horse and camel stickers.<\/p>\n

Police also seized about $93,000 in cash, a quantity of drugs, stolen vessels and a pill press after searching houses, factories and boats in Melbourne and hotel rooms in Queensland.<\/p>\n

Ten men who were found on board the boat, nine Chinese and one Singaporean, were charged last year over cocaine haul.<\/p>\n

The Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF) announced the results of the major multi-agency operation this afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We see this is a fantastic outcome in terms of reducing the harm that these drugs do in the community,” one spokesman said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source\u00a0\u00a0 www.9news.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six men have been arrested over a plot to smuggle more than $60 million worth of cocaine into Australia in an ex-Japanese whaling vessel. Police said they will have to trawl through thousands of telephone […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[350,2],"tags":[819,1107,196],"class_list":{"0":"post-5139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-news","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cocaine","11":"tag-crime","12":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5146,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}