Drug smuggler flies to wrong airport

A Melbourne drug dealer who tried to smuggle methamphetamine to Alice Springs was arrested by police when he flew to the wrong airport.

Between late February and early April, couriers twice flew drugs from Melbourne to Alice Springs to be collected by a local woman, police allege.

But on the third attempt, the courier accidentally booked a flight to Yulara, the township near Uluru, instead.

Police arrested him at the airport, and his 38-year-old Alice Springs contact who had driven the 445km to meet him had to head home without her package.

Police intercepted her on the road back to Alice Springs on Friday April 8 with knives and axes in her car, and arrested her the following Thursday.

The three packages of methamphetamine seized contained a total of 156g. Given that the drug is sold for about $1000 per gram on the street, it could have a street value of up to half a million dollars, depending on how often dealers along the supply chain cut it down with other substances.