00:00The Australian Federal Police charged six crew members of a merchant vessel
00:04allegedly involved with the importation of a tonne of cocaine.
00:08The men from Honduras and Ecuador allegedly operated a modified 40-metre vessel
00:13found to contain three professionally built smuggling hides.
00:18We've seen this before where boats that are of poor quality
00:21are obviously moving their way across international waters in dangerous seas
00:26and as a result of their poor quality, it draws in people having to rescue them
00:32and risk their lives.
00:33So in turn, the risk is not only to the people that are involved in the importation
00:37but to innocent people who are just serving the community, doing their job.
00:42When the AFP and the ABF inspected the vessel
00:45and did a comprehensive search of that said vessel,
00:49what we identified was that the hides had been custom-made,
00:53they were very sophisticated
00:54and they were designed to avoid law enforcement detection.
00:57If you have any information in relation to anything you may have seen
01:01that may have looked suspicious, whether that's at different wharves,
01:05whether that's on the water,
01:06whether that's people that are engaged in marine-type activities,
01:11please get in contact with us.
01:12You can report a crime at the AFP's website at www.afp.gov.au.
01:24Thank you..
01:25you
Comments