BUST MAY HERALD FLOOD OF DRUGS

Australia's largest amphetamine bust may confirm police fears that Asian
organised crime bosses plan to flood the nation with speed pills instead of
heroin.

The bulk of this week's 300kg-plus drug seizure is believed to be made up
of methamphetamine tablets from Burma.

Known as yaa baa (crazy medicine) pills in Asia, these deadly tablets are
new to Australia.

The record haul is also likely to contain a quantity of the rare
ecstasy-type drug eden.

Investigators will chase suggestions the Malaysian-based Sing Ma triad
society was involved in the importation, possibly by using a mother ship to
get the drugs close to Australia before transferring them to a smaller vessel.

Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty told the Herald Sun last month
the heroin drought was more a result of a business strategy by Asian crime
czars than a shortage of the drug.

The exclusive INSIGHT report revealed they had made a marketing decision to
deal mainly in methamphetamine tablets instead of heroin.

Mr Keelty warned that such tablets could become the next big drug problem
to hit Australia, saying it was far easier to flood a market with pills
than it was heroin.

He predicted then that yaa baa pills would soon arrive in Australia.

"It appears that has now happened," he told the Herald Sun last night.

Mr Keelty was commenting on the seizure of drugs from a yacht moored at
Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast and a Gold Coast unit on Tuesday night.

Two sailors allegedly caught on the yacht had been saved three months
earlier from a sinking boat in a taxpayer-funded rescue off Queensland's
central coast.

The dramatic rescue cost at least $2 million after a helicopter crashed
into the sea while trying to pluck the two Malaysian nationals from a
stricken yacht on Swains Reef, 200km off Rockhampton.

Although the weight and type of drugs on board the yacht Zen has not yet
been established, it will be more than 300kg and is expected to include yaa
baa pills, eden, ecstasy and the amphetamine derivative ice.

"The early indication is that these drugs have come from Burma or the
southern provinces of China," Mr Keelty said.

"That is still being investigated, but the drugs are consistent with
previous seizures of drugs, which have emanated from these regions.

"The bulk of the seizure was tablets and it appears likely most of them
were Burmese-manufactured yaa baa pills." Mr Keelty said Asian organised
crime syndicates had done market research that told them people were now
more prepared to pop a pill than inject themselves with heroin.

That had prompted them to switch from heroin production to churning out
speed pills, which they often disguised as ecstasy tablets.

He warned that AFP intelligence suggested getting yaa baa pills on to the
Australian market was high on the agenda of Asian organised crime gangs.

Mr Keelty said the previous biggest seizure of ecstasy in Australia was the
125kg found hidden in a shipment of pineapple tins in March 2001.

"The previous biggest seizure of ice was 79kg in December 2000," he said.

"We haven't as yet broken up this latest seizure into the weights of the
different type of drugs, but certainly as a bulk consignment of
amphetamine-type stimulants, this is the largest seizure we have ever had."

Customs officer Christine Heiser said the Mooloolaba seizure came after an
11-month joint Customs and AFP operation that began after a tip-off from a
member of the public that three Asian males had bought a boat from a
Queensland port town.

Ms Heiser said the three men had requested sailing lessons from the former
owner and he had agreed. Justice and Customs Minister Senator Chris Ellison
said the Mooloolaba seizure was an example of how a single piece of
information from a member of the public could result in a major drug bust.

"Through the good work of Customs and the AFP, several million hits of
amphetamines and ice have been taken off our streets," Senator Ellison said.

Two Malaysian nationals, Cock Leong Kwek, 45, and Sheak Sheng Khoo, 30,
were remanded in custody after appearing in Maroochydore Magistrates Court
yesterday to appear again on August 16 on three charges each relating to
importing a prohibited import.