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3.2 tons of cocaine were discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean.

This week, New Zealand authorities announced that they had successfully completed one of the largest drug busts in the country’s history. Through a joint operation between police, customs, and military codenamed Operation Hydros, authorities successfully uncovered a floating smuggler package in the Pacific Ocean, within which was contained a massive 3.2 tons of cocaine.

“We believe there was enough cocaine to service the Australian market for about one year and this would be more than New Zealand would use in 30 years,” police commissioner Andrew Coster told local CNN affiliate 9News.

Around 80 bales of cocaine were found in the bundle in various packages marked with decorative symbols like four-leaf clovers and the Batman symbol. Authorities believe the bundle to be the property of a local crime syndicate which either misplaced or dead-dropped the drugs during transit to Australia.

“There is no doubt this discovery lands a major financial blow right from the South American producers through to the distributors of this product,” Coaster added.

“We believe there was enough cocaine to service the Australian market for about one year, and this would be more than New Zealand would use in 30 years,” said New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. https://t.co/j16AmsHAdb

— ABC News (@ABC) February 9, 2023

“This is one of the single biggest seizures of illegal drugs by authorities in this country. While this disrupts the syndicate’s operations, we remain vigilant given the lengths we know these groups will go to circumvent coming to law enforcement’s attention.”

“It is a huge illustration of what lengths organized crime will go to with their global drug trafficking operations and shows that we are not exempt from major organized criminal drug smuggling efforts in this part of the world,” added Bill Perry, the New Zealand Customs Service acting controller.