Two-year international operation has ended with the arrest in Australia of a man alleged to be the head of a drug trafficking syndicate

Federal police say a two-year international operation has ended with the arrest in Australia of a man alleged to be the head of a drug trafficking syndicate spanning three continents.The man was formally charged on December 26 and is due to face a Melbourne court today following his extradition from the Netherlands.Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege he headed a drug syndicate operating out of Australia, Canada and the Netherlands by conspiring to import cocaine using a large network of couriers carrying the drug internally.AFP’s national manager border international Tim Morris said the effort and persistence of his organisation and its international law-enforcement partners in Canada, Thailand and the Netherlands had disrupted a global drug trafficking syndicate.“The commitment by these AFP investigators and their international counterparts led to the arrest of a key player in this global drug syndicate,” Assistant Commissioner Morris said in a statement.“The syndicate targets people who are vulnerable, either financially or because of their own drug dependency, to participate in the extremely risky and dangerous method of swallowing drug parcels for concealment from authorities.”Police said 12 people connected to the syndicate had been arrested in Australia and overseas so far.