Two men have been charged in Adelaide after authorities found 16 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in treadmills in a shipment from China.
Australian Federal Police on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old man from Valley View in Adelaide's north and a 37-year-old Perth man for their alleged role in the elaborate plot.
The men are accused of arranging for the shipment to be re-delivered to an address in Adelaide after it was originally consigned to a Sydney address.
The AFP launched investigations after Customs officers in Sydney detected the drugs, hidden within the treadmills' steel framing, in a routine search in December.
AFP spokesman Matthew Varley says the shipment was initially consigned to a false name and address in Sydney's CBD.
In early February a third party, believed to be from Nigeria, requested that the shipment be transferred to an Adelaide address.
The man from Perth, an Australian citizen, was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly arranging to take possession of the shipment from a home in Gilberton.
The Valley View man, a permanent resident originally from Sierra Leone, was arrested later that day at Greenfields after police allegedly found $14,500 in cash and other evidence at his home.
Commander Varley says the drugs had a wholesale value of $3.5 million but their street value was likely to be much greater.
"This is organised crime at work," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"The concealment was sophisticated, it was purpose-built. It's no doubt a sign that organised crime is active in South Australia."
Further arrests were possible as investigations continued, he said.
Both men will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
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