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$15m of ice hidden in fridge doors, police say

NT Police

NT Police

A 23-kilogram shipment of the drug ice concealed in fridge doors has been tracked to NSW and led to one man being arrested, police say.

A 51-year-old Sydney man has been charged after police intercepted a quantity of the drug they said had a street value of about $15.4 million at Darwin’s port.

In a statement, police detailed how the operation unfolded, which included tracking the consignment to a residence in News South Wales in late November.

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“Australian Border Force (ABF) officers, acting on intelligence, intercepted a package containing a refrigerator, a juice blender and a number of water cooling towers at the port of Darwin,” the statement said.

“After further examination, approximately 27 packages were allegedly found within the fridge doors.”

NT Police

More than 23kgs of the drug ice were found in the joint operation of NT and Federal Police and other agencies. Photo: NT Police

Police said they would allege the packages contained a “white crystalline substance with a total weight of approximately 23 kilograms”.

On November 27, police from the taskforce began what they described as a “controlled delivery” of the consignment, which had been redirected to a delivery depot in Sydney.

Police said the man collected the consignment on December 7 and returned with it to his premises in the Sydney suburb of Georges Hall, NSW.

Officers from the taskforce then conducted a search warrant on an address in Georges Hall, where the man was arrested.

Police said during a search of the premises they discovered “fraudulent documents and an additional three kilograms of a substance suspected to be methamphetamine and $6,700 cash”.

“This was a complex operation, and involved a great level of coordination from the time the drugs were intercepted in Darwin to being traced through to Sydney where the arrest has been made,” Darwin-based Australian Federal Police Superintendent Mark Setter said.

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