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Australian police seize drugs, guns, jewels in crime gang bust

Xinhua, February 10, 2017 Adjust font size:

Police in the Australian state of New South Wales have raided multiple properties in Sydney late Thursday and found caches of drugs, guns and jewellery connected to Iraqi-Assyrian crime gangs.

The raids which spanned the course of two days, netted a total of 15 kilograms of cocaine, 13.4 kilograms of methylamphetamine, 3.5 kilograms of an as yet unknown powder, 6 hand guns and ammunition, jewellery, a motorcycle and a Toyota Hiace van.

Police speculate the value of the cocaine to be in the millions, while the methylamphetamine has a street value of 310,000 Australian dollars.

The bust comes amid a growing gang crime problem in the Assyrian community in Australia, with a man with connections to Assyrian crime syndicates gunned down at a park in Sydney in late January.

Sydney's Assyrian community, numbering over 20,000 people, is comprised of families who fled war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq, with many of the leaders of the gangs syndicates fleeing the area after the 1990 Gulf War, and given asylum in Australia.

Australian police have charged a 30-year-old man in connection with the drug and gun haul. Endit