SYDNEY, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have charged a German national with a drug smuggling offense after cocaine was allegedly found in his luggage on arrival in the country.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a joint statement on Thursday that the 77-year-old man was stopped for a baggage examination after he arrived at Perth Airport in Western Australia on an international flight on Aug. 8.
During a search of two mini briefcases that the man was carrying in his backpack, ABF officers allegedly found packages containing four kilograms of a white substance. Subsequent testing of the substance returned a positive result for cocaine.
The case was handed over to AFP officers, who seized the drugs and arrested the man before charging him with one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
AFP Superintendent Peter Hatch said that the cocaine could have supplied 20,000 individual street-level deals worth an estimated 1.3 million Australian dollars (836,166.4 U.S. dollars). ■
