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Four Australian men have given new meaning to the phrase “brick printers.”
According to a press release from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) today, three men have been sentenced for attempting to use five presses to smuggle 22.4 kg (49.4 pounds) of cocaine into Australia.
In 2019, Australian news report that the printers were a Xerox brand and that the products had a street value of approximately 9.3 million AUD over 12.4 million AUD ($6.7 million to $9 million).
According to today’s announcement, the ABF raided a printer in Melbourne on April 30, 2017. They found that the printers had 10 packets of “white compressed powder hidden inside their paper trays.” Authorities used a “presumptive test” to determine if the powder was cocaine. He then removed the drug, put in another unknown drug, and sent the goods to the destination, the factory in Airport West, Victoria. Australia’s Channel Nine report in 2017 that authorities also installed tracking devices in printers.
In May 2017, the Australian police arrested four men who tried to take out the printers and charged them with “attempting to have a large amount of illegal drug trade,” AFP and ABF said today.
One of the four men was sentenced this month to nine years in prison with a non-parole period of four and a half years. Two other men have already been sentenced: One man was sentenced in 2025 to 10 years in prison with a non-parole period of five and a half years, and the other was sentenced in 2022 to 10 years in prison with a non-parole period of six and a half years. A fourth person arrested in 2017 was found not guilty.
The incident is one example of high-profile efforts by organized crime groups to smuggle drugs into Australia, according to AFP director general Simone Butcher.
“The AFP, as well as our domestic and international partners, are committed to our mission of protecting the community by disrupting and eliminating organized crime and their efforts to profit from the problems that have plagued our community,” Butcher said.
