SYDNEY, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Six sailors from Central and South America have been charged in Australia over the alleged import of one tonne of cocaine, police said on Monday.
The men from Honduras and Ecuador were arrested and charged by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on Saturday, two months after an investigation commenced when authorities from French Polynesia intercepted their modified 40-meter vessel, the MV Raider, in international waters.
During the January interception, the French Navy located and disposed of 4.8 tonnes of cocaine before releasing the MV Raider and its crew.
The AFP and Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a joint statement on Monday that police suspected that the MV Raider was looking to rendezvous with an Australian crew operating on behalf of a larger criminal syndicate to conduct an at-sea transfer of the drugs.
The ship was met by ABF officers off Australia's east coast in February, and the crew were informed they would not be permitted entry to an Australian port. However, after making a distress call, they were escorted into Sydney Harbor on March 13.
The crew members were taken to immigration detention and a search of the vessel by the AFP located three professionally installed smuggler hides suspected of previously containing up to six tonnes of cocaine.
An examination of electronic devices by the ABF found evidence that the MV Raider had further drugs on board when the French Navy released it.
It will be alleged in court that the six men dropped off one tonne of cocaine in Australian waters before making the distress call.
The men, ranging in age from 26 to 61, were all charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. ■