Nine men have been charged for their alleged links to a syndicate behind a large-scale conspiracy to import tonnes of illicit drugs into the Australian state of Victoria and traffic drugs around the country.
The ten-month investigation, Operation Bruce Cremorne, was run by the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (JOCTF), which includes the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Victoria Police, the Australian Border Force (ABF), and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
The alleged offenders, aged between 31 and 72, have been charged with a range of offences relating to the alleged conspiracy and the interstate trafficking of illicit drugs. Seven of them face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.
Operation Bruce Cremorne was launched in late May 2025, when four crewmembers were rescued after a commercial trawler sank off the coast of Port Albert, Victoria.
The JOCTF began monitoring the movements of the crew due to suspicions about why the vessel had travelled out to sea in bad weather without equipment usually required for commercial fishing.
Over the following months, police undertook surveillance of multiple local boat crews suspected to be linked to a drug importation syndicate.
It is alleged the syndicate made multiple attempts to travel into Bass Strait to launch suspected "daughter vessels" to travel to a predetermined drop zone to receive significant quantities of illicit drugs from a "mother ship" passing through Australian waters.
ABF said the syndicate was unsuccessful in alleged attempts to facilitate any such transfer and no importation occurred.
The Victorian JOCTF executed rolling search warrants over the past month across the Victorian suburbs of Morwell, Glenroy, Cranbourne, Cranbourne West, Cranbourne South and Greenvale. A further warrant was executed in the Sydney suburb of St Clair.
As part of this sweeping operational activity, eight men were arrested in Victoria and one man was arrested in Sydney. Seven of the men were arrested for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to import illicit drugs, while two were solely charged for their alleged involvement in illicit drug trafficking activity.
Four of the men were also charged in connection to the seizure of 30 kg of methamphetamine by the Western Australia JOCTF in Perth on August 11, 2025, and the seizure of 41 kg of cocaine by the Victoria Police Viper Task Force at Barnawartha in regional Victoria days later.
It will be alleged these seizures in Western Australia and Victoria are connected to the criminal syndicate, which exploited trucking industry connections to facilitate the movement of illicit drugs between Australian states.
Investigations into the international syndicate behind an alleged mother ship attempting to drop illicit cargo into Australian waters remain ongoing and further arrests have not been ruled out.
AFP Detective Superintendent Ray Imbriano said an all-agency approach and coordination was necessary to stop syndicates from carrying out plans to import illicit drugs into Australian communities.
"Organised criminals are sending their business to our shores because of the insatiable Australian demand for illicit commodities and the community's willingness to pay top dollar for them" Detective Superintendent Imbriano said.
"At-sea transfers are dangerous, and criminals using this smuggling method risk both their freedom and their lives. It also risks the lives of first responders, who too often have had to save the lives of crew involved in drug retrieval."