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Man carrying $200 million worth of meth crashes into police cars parked outside station

By Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — Australian police officials on Monday arrested a man on drug and traffic charges after he crashed his van, which held more than $200 million worth of suspected methamphetamine, into patrol cars parked outside the police station.

The man, identified by The Washington Post as Simon Tu, 26, of Berala, is charged with large commercial drug supply, negligent driving and not giving his particulars to the police, according to the New South Wales Police Force. He was denied bail on Tuesday.

"This would be one of the easiest drug busts the NSW Police has ever made," Police Detective Chief Inspector Glyn Baker said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Baker said in a video posted on Facebook that officers inside the Eastwood police station heard a "loud crash and bang" just after 10:30 a.m. Monday and went outside to find that a couple of parked police cars had been struck, with one sustaining significant damage. Eastwood, like Berala, is a suburb of Sydney.

Surveillance footage outside the station showed a white Toyota HiAce van strike the parked cars and keep moving. Officers are seen in the video running outside a few moments after the collision.

Ryde detectives investigate $200 million car crash

A man has been charged after more than 270kg of methylamphetamine was located in a van after it crashed into a parked police vehicle in Sydney’s north west yesterday. Just after 10.30am (Monday 22 July 2019), a Toyota HiAce allegedly hit parked police cars on Ethel Street, Eastwood, in front of Eastwood Police Station. One of the police vehicles sustained significant damage, but no one was injured. Following inquiries, an inspector from Ryde Police Area Command stopped the HiAce on Church Street, Ryde, about 11.30am. The inspector spoke to the male driver before conducting a search of the van. During the search, police located moving boxes, which contained multiple bags of a crystalline substance, with presumptive testing returning a positive indicator for methylamphetamine. In total, police seized 273kg of ice, which has an estimated potential street value of more than $200 million. Police also seized the van for extensive forensic examination. The driver, a 26-year-old Berala man, was arrested and taken to Ryde Police Station. He was charged with large commercial drug supply, negligent driving, and not give particulars to police. The man was refused bail to appear at Burwood Local Court later today (Tuesday 23 July 2019). Investigations are being led by detectives from Ryde Police Area Command, with assistance from the State Crime Command’s Drug and Firearms Squad. As their inquiries continue, detectives are appealing for motorists to provide dash cam footage from the area between 10.30am and 11.30am, as well as any CCTV or other vision, or information about the van’s movements throughout the morning.

Posted by NSW Police Force on Monday, July 22, 2019

An inspector from the Ryde Police Area Command located the van traveling in Ryde about an hour later and stopped the driver, Baker said.

Officers who searched the van were stunned by what they found.

Inside were 13 moving boxes containing more than 600 pounds of a crystalline substance that presumptive testing at the scene indicated was meth.

According to a news release, the estimated potential street value of the drugs is more than $200 million.

Tu "certainly had a very, very bad day," Baker said in the video.

“Crashing into a police vehicle with that amount of drugs on board is somewhat unheard of, and it is an exceptional set of circumstances,” Baker said.

Cox Media Group

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