{"id":584153,"date":"2026-04-04T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584153\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:10:11","slug":"alleged-crime-syndicate-accused-of-plan-to-smuggle-tonnes-of-cocaine-by-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584153\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged crime syndicate accused of plan to smuggle tonnes of cocaine by sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine men have been charged over alleged attempts to smuggle tonnes of illicit drugs into Victoria by sea.<\/p>\n

Police cottoned on to the plan after a trawler allegedly linked to the syndicate’s plans sank in rough weather last year.<\/p>\n

A 10-month joint operation, known as Operation Bruce Cremorne, involving Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police and Border Force culminated in the arrests of eight men in Victoria and one man in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The men, aged between 31 and 72, face charges including conspiracy to import cocaine, trafficking methamphetamine, and firearms offences.<\/p>\n

The arrests followed raids in Victoria in Morwell, Glenroy, Cranbourne, Cranbourne West, Cranbourne South and Greenvale, and in the Sydney suburb of St Clair.<\/p>\n

Seven of the men face potential life sentences if convicted.<\/p>\n

The charges relate to alleged attempts to smuggle quantities of up to 3.5 tonnes of cocaine into the country by sea.<\/p>\n

Police said the syndicate allegedly made multiple attempts to travel into Bass Strait with the intention of receiving drug shipments from a ship passing through Australian waters.<\/p>\n

The attempts failed and no drugs were brought onshore.<\/p>\n

\"Rear<\/p>\n

Police from multiple agencies were involved in the operation. (Supplied: Victoria Police.)<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said the investigation into the syndicate was ongoing and further arrests had not been ruled out.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Dave Cowan said police were concerned Australia had become a “favourable location” for organised crime syndicates.<\/p>\n

“As is startlingly clear, the damage caused by the use of illicit substances ripples throughout the community, and it does not just affect those using the drug,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There have been many lives forever changed and ruined simply by their sheer misfortune of encountering someone who chose to take an illegal substance.”Trawler sinking raises police suspicion<\/p>\n

Police launched Operation Bruce Cremorne after the sinking of a trawler off the Victorian coast at Port Albert in May last year raised suspicion.<\/p>\n

Investigators began monitoring the crew after becoming suspicious about why the vessel had travelled out to sea in bad weather without equipment usually required for commercial fishing.<\/p>\n

Over the following months, police undertook surveillance of multiple boat crews suspected of being linked to the syndicate.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police said local boat crews were allegedly involved in the drug importation plans. (Supplied: Victoria Police)<\/p>\n

Police said the syndicate attempted to rendezvous with a “mother ship”, with smaller vessels launched from larger ships.<\/p>\n

AFP Detective Superintendent Ray Imbriano said it was a risky method.<\/p>\n

“At-sea transfers are dangerous, and criminals using this smuggling method risk both their freedom and their lives,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It also risks the lives of first responders, who too often have had to save the lives of crew involved in drug retrieval.”<\/p>\n

The Victorian men will face court on July 28 and the man arrested in Sydney will face a NSW court on May 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine men have been charged over alleged attempts to smuggle tonnes of illicit drugs into Victoria by sea.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29623,30558,74876,42895,48,124003,286046,43,44,1158,41,39,42,40,2024],"class_list":{"0":"post-584153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afp","9":"tag-bass-strait","10":"tag-border-force","11":"tag-cocaine","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-drug-bust","14":"tag-drug-shipment","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-victoria-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}