Bondi Beach lifeguards discover a kilo of cocaine floating in the water – after police warned locals NOT to look for washed-up drug packages
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A kilo of cocaine was discovered behind the waves on one of Australia's most famous beaches.
The tightly wrapped package was found by a lifeguard about 1km outside North Bondi Beach on New Year's Day.
The lifeguard handed the package to police and added it to the more than 170kg of cocaine that has washed up on beaches from Sydney to Newcastle since December 23.
Police have urged members of the public not to treat the wave of discoveries as a 'treasure hunt', warning that anyone caught with one of the mysterious packages will be accused of being in possession of a 'large commercial quantity' drugs.
The NSW State Crime Command has taken over the investigation into who the packages were intended for and why they washed ashore.
The lifeguard handed the package to police, adding it to the more than 170kg of cocaine that has washed up on beaches from Sydney to Newcastle since December 23 (stock image)
The tightly wrapped package was found by a lifeguard about 1km from North Bondi Beach (pictured) on New Year's Day
The first barnacle-covered package weighing about 39kg was discovered at Magenta Beach, on the state's central coast. The following day, six more parcels of varying quantities were found on beaches from Newcastle to Sydney.
Another 39 blocks of cocaine were found by a fisherman at Barrenjoey Headland, in Sydney's northern beaches, on Boxing Day.
That same day, a further 39kg was found at the Newcastle Ocean Baths.
“If someone is caught in possession of one of these stones, it is a large commercial quantity and carries a life sentence of 25 years, so it is a significant sentence,” said Jason Weinstein, director of the NSW Police State Crime Command. ABC on Saturday.
“We don't know yet what the purity of that is, we don't know what's mixed with that, there's a whole bunch of unknowns.”
Anyone who comes across an object that they suspect contains cocaine is urged not to touch or open it, but to contact the police.
The investigation into how the cocaine ended up on Australian shores continues with theories including the packages being thrown from a cargo ship or dislodged from an anchor by Cyclone Jasper.
One of the mysterious packets of drugs has washed up in Newcastle baths
Police have warned the public not to search for the packages as they will be charged with possessing a 'large commercial quantity' of narcotics (pictured, package found on the Central Coast).
“We know that syndicates will use a number of methods through shipping containers,” Chief Inspector Weinstein said.
“Sometimes we see items being deliberately thrown into the ocean to be picked up by another ship.”
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's (ACIC) National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program found that each in 1,000 Sydneysiders consumed an average of 910 mg of cocaine per day, the highest amount in the country.
In December 2021, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research discovered a post-Covid record of 275 people arrested for cocaine possession statewide.
The majority of cocaine-related arrests in Sydney were made in the city's CBD and eastern suburbs, with Randwick and Waverley accounting for the bulk of arrests.