TWO HELD ON $200M HEROIN, ICE HAUL

A major drug syndicate has been broken and heroin and the fast-acting
amphetamine ice valued at $200 million has been seized in Sydney in a drug
haul that began with a routine import profile analysis.

The seizure, in late November and early December, of 184 kilograms of
heroin and 79 kilograms of ice, has removed more than two million drug hits
from Australia's streets.

Two men appeared in Sydney courts charged with drug and customs offences on
Wednesday. The alleged principal, a Chinese national, was arrested at a
border crossing between Hong Kong and China on Tuesday. Australian
authorities will seek the man's extradition.

Justice and Customs Minister Amanda Vanstone said a coordinated
investigation by the Joint Asian Crime Group, the Australian Federal
Police, customs and Hong Kong authorities followed the initial discovery of
drugs concealed in the floor of shipping containers.

She said the discovery of a record amount of ice was disturbing, given the
seizure was 10 times more than anything found in Australia before.

"Ice is an extremely nasty drug with potentially devastating side-effects,
including severe emotional problems, dependency and paranoid psychoses,"
Senator Vanstone said.

The ice was placed into the floor supports of two containers carrying
plastic modular storage units from China to Sydney. Customs analysis led to
another three containers containing heroin.

The ice had a street value of $15.8 million. The heroin was valued at $180
million on the streets.

"The big dealers must be getting pretty sick of losing their money,"
Senator Vanstone said. "Sooner or later these people are going to realise
Australia is a very, very dangerous place to import drugs into."

Sniffer dogs, iron scans and X-ray equipment was used to discover the drugs.

Ice is crystalline methamphetamine, also known as shabu, euphoria,
icecream, batu, glass, crystal, quartz, and crystal meth. It is a
particularly potent form of amphetamine with an 80 per cent purity,
compared with 3 per cent for some street amphetamines.