Four men are behind bars after police in Australia seized $210 million dollars worth of crystal meth that was being transported with the help of hot sauce bottles.
It all comes after authorities discovered 400 kilograms of the drug that was hidden in bottles of Sriracha sent from the United States, according to Reuters in a piece published Thursday. (RELATED: Woman Caught Smuggling Enough Fentanyl On A Bus To Kill 1.5 Million People)
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Police said the search of an air cargo consignment that was sent to the Sydney freight depot on Oct. 15 lead to the discovery of 786 bottles of the red hot sauce “with presumptive testing returning a positive indicator for methylamphetamine (ice),” per a statement from the New South Wales state police. (RELATED: Teenage Women Caught With Almost $70,000 Worth Of Meth At Border Checkpoint)
That lead to the arrest of three Australian men, a 36-year-old man on Sunday and then two more people were consequently arrested in the car park of a Sydney hotel.
In pictures released from authorities, eight cartons of the spicy sauce were stacked in the back of a car and police seized another 26 boxes from a hotel suite.
The three have been charged with attempt to possess a commercial quantity and the unlawful importing of a border-controlled drug, Reuters reports.
A fourth man was arrested on Thursday. He faces charges of possessing identity information to commit an indictable offense.
“This has been a complex investigation and we know the methylamphetamine in this import was headed for a clandestine lab in the Sydney Metropolitan area for the extraction process to occur,” State Crime Commander Stuart Smith said in a statement.
“We will conduct further investigations with our law enforcement partners to identify other people linked to the group,” he added.
Authorities estimate that the massive seizure has prevented four million hits of ice from hitting the streets.