TWO Sydney men were this week charged as part of an ongoing joint-agency investigation into a trusted insider network operating within Sydney’s cargo ports.
An Oran Park man, 35, and a Condell Park man, 26, were charged by the Multi Agency Strike Team (MAST) in relation to plots to import illicit drugs between 2025 and 2026.
The MAST. made up of investigators from the AFP and NSW Police Force, works directly with law enforcement partners to target trusted insiders.
In April last year, the MAST began investigations targeting a criminal syndicate alleged to have members working inside Port Botany to facilitate the importation of illicit drugs.
MAST investigators linked the alleged trusted insider network to multiple plots to import illicit drugs via Port Botany between February and October 2025.
Police will allege the network facilitated attempts to access more than one tonne of illicit drugs hidden in shipping containers, including cocaine hidden in consignments from Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Europe and South America.
In May 2026, investigators charged five alleged trusted insiders relating to a failed 506kg cocaine importation in August, 2025, with further arrests occurring in Chile, where six people were charged over their alleged roles in a relation to a 58kg cocaine plot detected before the drugs reached Australia.
Ongoing MAST inquiries identified the Condell Park man allegedly took part in the retrieval of 140kg of border-controlled drugs in May 2025, from the roof cavity of a refrigerated container.
It will be alleged the Oran Park man was a forklift operator who allegedly commenced a criminal association with the syndicate coordinator and assisted with the retrieval of 120kg of border-controlled drugs in June 2025.
It will be alleged the men were operating under the direction of a 29-year-old Holsworthy man, who was arrested by the MAST in May 2026 as the coordinator of the trusted insider network.
On Thursday 4 June this year, MAST investigators raided the men's homes where police seized $113,000 in cash.
The men were both charged with possessing a commercial quantity of unlawfully imported border-controlled drug.
The Condell Park man was formally refused police bail and is expected to appear before the Downing Centre Local Court on 22 July.
The arrest of the two men brings the total number of arrests under Strike Force Paiporta and Operation Durak to nine.