Man charged over alleged plot to import suitcase of cocaine into Brisbane
A man has been charged over his alleged role in a plan to import nearly 30kg of cocaine into Australia via a suitcase from South America.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers foiled the plan by a transnational organised crime group to import cocaine from Colombia to Australia.
A 33-year-old Colombian man, who was staying in Australia on a student visa, was arrested at a shopping centre near Brisbane Airport after he allegedly tried to take a suitcase - which was supposed to contain cocaine - from a rental locker.
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Video supplied by the AFP shows the man unlocking a rental locker. AFP
Video supplied by the AFP shows the man wheeling the suitcase away but moments later officers descend on him in the arrest.
The suitcase was meant to be carrying 28kg of cocaine which would have been sold as 140,000 individual street deals worth about $7 million.
The man has been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug and an offence relating to the man refusing to provide access to his mobile phone.
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He pulls out a suitcase that was allegedly meant to contain cocaine. AFP
The man was arrested by AFP officers moments later. AFP
The maximum penalty for the drug offence is life imprisonment.
The other charge carries a potential penalty of 10 years in prison.
The 33-year-old faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.
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