World's largest ever ecstasy haul worth £200million seized by cops
By Mirror.co.uk
8/08/2008[/align]
The world's largest ever haul of ecstasy worth £200 million has been seized by police in Australia after they smashed an international drugs ring. Fifteen million pills weighing more than four tonnes were found hidden in a shipping container that arrived in Melbourne from Italy.
Police arrested 16 people across Australia who were allegedly involved in the distribution and trafficking of the drugs, in a joint operation with the Australian Customs Service. The year-long investigation began last June when a shipping container from Italy arrived in Melbourne and was found to hold 3,000 tomato cans containing ecstasy pills with an estimated street value of £200million. Officials substituted the 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy with another substance, then tracked the delivery.
Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said: "This is an extraordinary outcome for law enforcement as it continues to work together to detect illicit drugs before they reach Australia. International intelligence, combined with the co-operation of local law enforcement agencies, played a big role in the success of the operation."
----------------
So £200m divided by 15m pills = £13.33 a pill. Bollocks! You can buy them here for about 50p if you buy only 100. So that takes the entire shipment down in value to £7.5m maximum - and considering the bulk costs being a lot cheaper, I'd guess the whole lot was worth £2m at most.
£200m sounds more glamourous though eh?