POLICE SEIZE RECORD $140 MILLION CACHE OF COCAINE

IN a month of record drug seizures, Australian Federal Police and
Customs yesterday showed off their latest haul - 500kg of cocaine with
an estimated street value of $140 million.

An 18-month investigation codenamed Shard led police and Customs
officials to intercept a 12m New Zealand-registered yacht, the Ngaire
Wha - under full sail allegedly with a full cargo of cocaine - near
Patonga, north of Sydney, about 4am yesterday. Three men were arrested
on board, and another three were detained on a nearby public wharf.
Police claim those on the yacht were planning to take the drugs,
wrapped in hessian, ashore in a small dinghy.

None of those arrested offered any resistance, though police said they
"looked a little surprised".

Three men were refused bail in Sydney's Central Court yesterday and
the other three are expected to appear today. One of the accused
carries the title Sir but an AFP spokesman denied he was a British
knight.

"This was a syndicate of people up the higher levels of international
drug trafficking," AFP agent Peter Donaldson said yesterday.
Commissioner Mick Palmer said the haul roughly translated into two
million "caps" to be sold individually on the streets.

"No business can afford to lose this amount from their profit margin,
no matter what the business," he said.

The haul more than doubles the previous record of 225kg of cocaine,
seized from a yacht at Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast in
December 1998.

This caps a nightmare month for big-time drug dealers trying to import
to Sydney. In the first two weeks of January, more than 120kg of
ecstasy seized in separate raids in the city made its way into the AFP
furnaces.

The six men arrested in the latest sting are believed to be of
Australian, British, New Zealand and South American extraction.

The consignment is believed to have originated in New Zealand, but the
investigation used police resources from several countries.

Several more arrests here and overseas are expected to follow within a
week. For a week before the raid, a plane shadowed the yacht using new
satellite communications equipment to trace the voyage.

When those on board looked to be heading towards land, three
high-speed vessels made their move and intercepted the yacht.

Mr Palmer said main waterways close to the big-city market were
becoming the favoured thoroughfare of drug syndicates because they
could avoid unwanted attention in heavy traffic.