Man with ‘$1M of ice in underpants’ arrested at airport
Sydney AU Aug 27 2018 sniffer dogs have detected a man allegedly carrying $1 million of ice in his underpants after he disembarked from a Sydney flight at Hobart Airport.
Tasmania Police estimate the drug haul stashed in the man’s underpants would have yielded about 10,000 drug hits.
Police drug dog handlers met the man off the flight and took him away for searching and allegedly found a kilogram of methamphetamine in plastic bags concealed in his underclothing.
Tasmania Police said the Hobart man was arrested following “ongoing searches, linked to sound intelligence”.
The 31-year-old appeared in court on Saturday.
His arrest followed two others during routine searches on Thursday, also of men flying from Sydney to Hobart Airport.
Two men were allegedly caught trying to smuggle more than 260 grams of cocaine into Tasmania through Hobart Airport after disembarking a flight from Sydney.
Police allege a 36-year-old man from Redan in Victoria had 260 grams of methamphetamine and 134 grams of cocaine secreted in his clothing with a street value of more than $170,000.
A 26-year-old man from Mowbray in Tasmania was found to have 214 grams of methamphetamine and 128 grams of cocaine in his clothing.
The street value of these drugs is estimated to be in excess of $145,000.
Police said recent intelligence and arrests reinforced the view that illicit drugs were being imported into the state, rather than being manufactured locally.
Tasmania Police issued a statement saying that, as a matter of course, officers regularly screen passengers disembarking at all of Tasmania’s airports.
