Ice stashed in imported car in Vic

Police in Melbourne have found 30kg of the drug ice hidden inside the panels of a classic car imported from the USA.

30kg of the drug ice seized by Victorian police

Police in Melbourne have found 30kg of ice hidden inside the panels of a car imported from the US. (AAP)

A classic American car was imported into Melbourne with 30kg of the drug ice allegedly hidden inside it.

Customs officers at Melbourne Port found the drugs - with a multi-million dollar street value - hidden inside the rear quarter panels of a Chevrolet Impala.

"It was in the panels either side of the boot," Australian Federal Police Commander Bruce Giles told reporters on Friday.

Mr Giles said it was a very professional concealment and the criminals involved were "very patient in their work".

The drugs were found on September 4 and replaced with fakes, and the car then tracked as it was collected and moved into the community.

Victoria Police and AFP officers, working as part of the Trident Taskforce, raided a number if properties in suburban Hillside and South Melbourne overnight.

Two men aged in their 40s - one of them a Spanish national - were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, namely methamphetamine.

Mr Giles said the ongoing investigation would focus on those who had contact with the car before it arrived in Australia.

"It would appear to be a fairly professional organisation," he also said of those responsible.

"The car was in a good condition that enabled it to be registered in Australia."

Victoria Police deputy commissioner Graham Ashton said the drug seizure represented hundreds of crimes averted.

"This represents hundreds of callouts to ice-related violence and ice-related incidents that Victoria Police will now not have to make," Mr Ashton told reporters.

"It will prevent family violence, it will prevent road trauma ... burglaries, and car theft out in our community."

Trident Taskforce is a multi-agency operation aimed at deterring and disrupting organised crime at Victoria's waterfront.

Two men - 41-year-old Hillside man Besim Beqiri and 47-year-old Jacinto Rodriguez Conejo - appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

They were remanded to appear in the court on January 23.


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