Cyprus-Australia drug bust: Man jailed for smuggling 628 kilos of ecstasy in barbecues

A 59-year-old man was jailed for 23 years on Monday after pleading guilty to involvement in the smuggling to Australia of 628 kilos of ecstasy concealed in Cypriot-made barbecues, court officials said.

The drugs were seized in 2019 in Sydney after a tip-off from Cyprus police that the consignment had left on a container ship from the southern port of Limassol.

Limassol criminal court, which did not name or give the nationality of the man convicted, said it was the largest drugs case to come before a Cyprus court.

An accomplice jailed last year had testified against the 59-year-old under a witness protection deal, after an investigation that also involved Britain’s National Crime Agency.

The 628-kilo (almost 1,400-pound) cache had a street value of about $17.5 million.

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Allegedly, the drugs arrived in Cyprus on a sailboat in March 2019, and they were placed in 200 barbecues and exported to Australia.

Australian authorities in 2019 announced the arrest of two men, a 30-year-old local man from Queensland and a 33-year-old Canadian, for allegedly smuggling the drugs into the country.

• Australia