Authorities in Australia arrested four men for allegedly attempting to smuggle 880 pounds of methamphetamine into the country in hot sauce bottles.
The Australian Border Force said they discovered the hundreds of bottles of Sriracha-branded hot sauce being transported into Sydney from the United States by freight. The drug has an estimated street value of over $208 million.
State Crime Commander Stuart Smith, using an alternate name for the chemical, said that the meth was bound for a secret lab to be processed as part of the criminal enterprise.
“This has been a complex investigation, and we know the methylamphetamine in this import was headed for a clandestine lab in the Sydney metropolitan area for the extraction process to occur,” Smith said.
Three of the four men — all in their 30s — were arrested earlier this month, while the fourth man, aged 45, was arrested Thursday. Authorities are still hoping to nab others involved in the alleged operation.
“This detection should serve as a warning to criminal groups that no matter how clever you think you are being in the way that you attempt to conceal and move your drugs, our officers have the skills, technology, and the resources to find them and track down the people who are attempting to bring them in,” said Matt O’Connor, an acting regional commander with the Australian Border Force.
