Two foreign nationals have been charged over an alleged plot to import more than 460 kilograms of cocaine into Australia.
The French man, 30, and Swiss woman, 27, were arrested on June 1 by federal police after they allegedly collected about 100kg of what was believed to be cocaine from a storage unit in the Perth suburb of Belmont.
Australian Federal Police officers searched a northern suburbs home used as short-term rental accommodation and allegedly found the packages from the consignment, as well as cocaine purity tests.
The pair were each charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border controlled drugs.
They first faced court on June 2 and are expected to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday.
It will be alleged they had arrived in Australia in mid-May and police are investigating whether they flew in solely to help distribute the drugs.
The pair face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.
Their arrests followed a joint effort by the AFP and the United States' Drug Enforcement Authority to investigate a drug-trafficking syndicate targeting Australia.
The 460kg of cocaine, contained in 398 plastic-wrapped packages, could have been sold in more than two million individual deals.
This would have diverted about $184 million from the economy, police said on Friday.
Inspector Chris Colley said organised crime groups posed a threat to national security and made Australian communities less safe.
"Territorial drug disputes spill into suburbs and put innocent people at risk, drug-affected drivers are a menace on the roads and the money spent on illicit drugs diverts millions of dollars from the legitimate economy," he said.
"That is why the AFP works closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners locally and internationally to disrupt these groups."
An investigation is ongoing to identify other people involved locally and overseas.
