AUSTRALIAN Federal Police yesterday celebrated the seizure of 250kg of cocaine, with a street value of $87.5 million, and predicted the bust would seriously affect the supply of the drug.

The seizure, the fourth-biggest in Australia, was made after police became suspicious about millions of dollars being transferred to bank accounts in Southeast Asia during January.

Three people faced court in Sydney yesterday over the bust. A 50-year-old man and two women aged 28 and 25, all from south Sydney, were charged with importing and trying to possess a commercial quantity of cocaine.

They were arrested on Tuesday after police raids on nine different properties across the city.

Police alleged the cocaine was concealed in one kilogram portions inside packets labelled “green tea”. The packets were contained in 10 boxes inside a shipping container of furniture.

Acting on a tip-off, investigators from the Joint Asian Crime Gang inspected the shipping container when it arrived in Sydney from Southeast Asia last week, substituting similar looking material to cocaine and monitoring the delivery to a warehouse in Auburn, in Sydney’s west.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione described the amount of drugs as “staggering.” High quality cocaine sells in Sydney for about $300 a gram. “This is 250kg of cocaine that will not be adding to Australia’s drug misery,” he said.