An Irish man has been accused of attempting to smuggle cocaine into Australia inside a series of Kinder Suprise capsules.
The 28-year-old was stopped at Melbourne Airport and police said a positive test for the presence of cocaine was taken.
He was transported to hospital for a CT scan, which revealed six yellow plastic capsules packed with the class A drug that he had lodged internally, police said.
Five of the capsules were allegedly swaddled by condoms, while one was wrapped in plastic cling film.
Police said he later excreted the six capsules, which authorities said contained a total of about 120g of cocaine.
The man’s bags were searched on his arrival in Melbourne, which he had flown to from the Middle East in late December.
In a joint statement, Border Force and Australian federal police said the man was charged with one count of importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug.
He was remanded in custody and will appear in court in late March. If convicted he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail.
“Smuggling drugs internally is idiotic,” AFP detecting acting superintendent Chris Salmon said in a statement.
“There is the real risk that something could go wrong, resulting in a potentially fatal drug overdose or permanent damage to internal organs.”
In a warning to other potential drug smugglers, Border Force said it was “not worth risking your health by attempting to internally transport drugs into our country as ABF officers are highly trained in detection and will ensure that you are stopped at the border”.
Just last month, it was reported that a plot to smuggle £45 million worth of drugs to Australia was foiled after a man accidentally sent a photo of his dog on an encrypted network.
The picture, spotted on Encron by National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators, showed Danny Brown‘s partner’s phone number on his pet dog’s tag.
Mr Brown‘s gang had stuffed the huge stash of MDMA in the arms of a mechanical digger, and created a fake auction to make shipping the machinery 10,000 miles from Southampton to Brisbane in Australia appear legitimate.
