…As Australia announces biggest meth seizure at 1.2 tons***
Australia has said it will stop conducting air strikes against so-called Islamic State (IS) group targets in Iraq and Syria.
Six hornet jets will be recalled, although refuelling and surveillance aircraft will remain at Iraq’s request.
Australia has been conducting strikes as part of an international coalition for more than two years.
Defence Minister Marise Payne said the announcement followed Iraq’s recent declaration of victory over IS.
She said Iraq and other allies had been consulted on the decision.
Australia has deployed about 780 military personnel as part of the US-led coalition.
“Given the success that has been achieved on the battlefield by the Iraqi security forces, Australia’s contribution is now at a transition point,” Ms Payne said.
“Following discussions with Iraq and members of the international coalition, the Australian government has determined we will bring home our six Super Hornet strike aircraft from the Middle East.”
She described the campaign as long and “brutal” and thanked the Australians who had served.
Two weeks ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a conference in Baghdad that Iraqi troops were now in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border.
The US welcomed the end of IS occupation, but said the fight against the group would continue.
In the meantime, Australian police said Friday they made the country’s largest seizure of methamphetamine — a 1.2 ton haul with a street value estimated at A$1.04 billion ($802 million).
Eight men, all from Australia, were charged as a result of the bust in the West Australian coastal town of Geraldton, after what police called a “complex, multi-agency investigation which traversed the country.”
A press release issued by a combination of five law enforcement agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, said the seizure surpassed the previous record meth bust, a 903-kilogram haul in Melbourne early this year.
It is also the largest drug bust of any kind in Western Australia, the country’s largest state, with almost 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) of coastline.
Police said the drugs had been transported on a private boat that docked in Geraldton in the early hours of Thursday morning and loaded into a van. Police intercepted the vehicle as it reversed from the dock.
Police arrested three men in the van, a further three on the boat, plus two more in a hotel in Perth, culminating a five-month operation that dismantled a complex drug trafficking network.
Fifty-nine bags containing some 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of methamphetamine each were seized from the vehicle. An additional bag containing approximately 20 kilograms of methamphetamine was found on the vessel.
The three men on the boat and the two seized at the Perth hotel were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug. The occupants of the van were charged with possessing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug reasonably suspected of having been unlawfully imported. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Federal police will allege in court these men intended to distribute the drugs along the east coast of Australia, said federal police Deputy Commissioner Operations Leanne Close.
Police did not say where the meth came from before reaching Geraldton.
BBC with additional report from ABC
