Drugs in food, car parts

US cops stop Australia-bound haul

American authorities have smashed a Californian drug ring that allegedly shipped hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine to Australia in everything from instant noodle packets to car parts.

The alleged traffickers used military-grade encrypted communications and a transnational network of dodgy customs brokers, shipping workers and border officials until their longrunning scheme was brought down last month.

Court documents reveal one of their associates flipped and spent more than 18 months as a secret informant for law enforcement agents investigating the drug syndicate.

Two members were arrested and charged in December while another two remain on the run.

In July 2018, according to a grand jury indictment, 390 kilograms of methamphetamine was shipped to Australia in packets of instant noodles and mushroom seasoning at the direction of Hoang Xuan Le and Tri Cao Buinguyen, the two men who are now in custody.

Two months later, they allegedly trafficked another 113 kilograms of methamphetamine and 100 kilograms of cocaine concealed in garlic seasoning packets.

Le, known as “Big Bro” and “Knockout”, and Buinguyen, known as “Bro” and “Mango”, allegedly used a freight company for both shipments before sending another four kilograms of cocaine – hidden in emergency food ration kits – through the post in October that year.

According to the indictment, an unnamed co-conspirator later assisted them with the paperwork for multiple drug shipments to Australia as well as New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Japan.

This included 12 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in car parts to be sent to Australia in 2019, and 14 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in subwoofers to be sent to Papua New Guinea in 2020.

In August 2020, a plan to send 30 kilograms of methamphetamine to Australia in metal boxes came unstuck when the unnamed co-conspirator asked an undercover agent – who was posing as a shipping company employee – about the status of the delivery.

By April 2021, according to the indictment, the unnamed member of the syndicate had “unbeknownst to defendants … begun working with law enforcement in an undercover capacity”.

Authorities recorded calls and obtained encrypted messages about the drug ring’s plans to send 150 kilograms of methamphetamine in food storage buckets to Papua New

Guinea, enabling them to intercept the shipment.

This prompted the syndicate to again change their methods, trialling concealing drugs in chocolates, cigarettes and poker chips sent from Hawaii to Australia.

In 2022, another 32-kilogram shipment of methamphetamine to New Zealand – this time concealed in readyto-eat packaged meals – was intercepted by law enforcement.

In a statement, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said it seized a total of 755 kilograms of methamphetamine and more than 100 kilograms of cocaine as part of the case, valued at as much as $US160m ($A243m).

A trial is scheduled for November, with Le and Buinguyen facing life in prison.