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This is a joint release between the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force 

Editor’s note: Images and vision available via Hightail   

A Perth woman has been sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for attempting to possess almost 11kg of methamphetamine imported into Australia disguised in a container labelled as wall coating. 

The woman, 35, was today (9 May, 2025) sentenced in the Perth District Court after pleading guilty on 10 December, 2024, to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, contrary to section 307.5 of the Criminal Code (Cth). She will serve a minimum non-parole period of four years and 10 months. 

She is the second person sentenced over the failed import, with a male accomplice sentenced in December, 2023, to more than nine years’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the same offence. 

Australian Border Force (ABF) discovered the illicit drugs on 6 October, 2021, after x-raying the container when it arrived in Western Australia via air cargo from the United States.  

Initial tests by the ABF indicated the presence of methamphetamine and ABF officers alerted the AFP. 

AFP forensic tests on the thick black paste inside the container established about 11kg of methamphetamine was mixed into the paste. The mixture was so corrosive the container started to disintegrate inside the AFP’s secure drug storage facility. 

The AFP substituted the container for one without illicit drugs, and the package was delivered to a short-stay apartment in Scarborough on 18 October, 2021, where it was collected by the woman. 

She then met up with a man, 36, and they travelled to a house in Willetton where they used a saw to open the container and look for the drugs in the substance. AFP, with the support of ABF, arrested the pair as they tried to drive away from the property. 

The man pleaded guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and was sentenced in December, 2023, to nine years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years and seven months.  

AFP Detective Acting Inspector Gabby Adam said the AFP worked closely with ABF and other law enforcement partners to prevent illicit drugs reaching the streets and stop those who tried to profit at the community’s expense.  

“Had 11kg of methamphetamine reached the community, it could have been sold as about 110,000 individual street deals,” Det a/Insp Adam said. 

"On average, 38 people were hospitalised each day in Australia for methamphetamine-related incidents in 2022-23* - it is a very damaging drug.” 

ABF Superintendent James Payne said the ABF was ever vigilant of criminals looking to circumvent border controls.  

“Make no mistake, regardless of how creative criminals think they are being in their attempts to smuggle illicit drugs into the country, we are onto them," Supt Payne said. 

“We work closely with our partner agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, to ensure criminals seeking to bring harmful substances into the Australian community are brought to justice."