Australian police have seized 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a broken-down boat off the coast of Queensland, authorities said on Monday.
Eleven men and two juveniles were arrested, including the ship’s crew and others waiting ashore to collect the contraband.
The drugs have an estimated street value of A$760m ($490m; £388m), with the potential to be distributed in 11.7 million separate street deals – the biggest cocaine bust in Australian history.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said one of the men arrested on Saturday night was the vice-president of the Brisbane chapter of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club.
Biker gangs are notorious in Australia for their drug violence, with more than 1,000 shootings recorded since the 1980s.
The latest cocaine bust comes as part of a wider investigation into the Comanchero gang, codenamed Operation Tyrender, which began last month.
Authorities said they had received intelligence indicating a criminal syndicate linked to the gang was planning to import illegal drugs into Australia.
This comes after reports last week A semi-submersible carrying cocaine to Australia has been intercepted by the Colombian Navy.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane that the cocaine shipment came from an unidentified South American country.
The AFP worked with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and the Australian Border Force (ABF) to locate a fishing boat recently purchased by a 35-year-old man.
On Saturday night, a large mothership used to transport cocaine to the Queensland coast suffered a mechanical failure, police said.
Caught about 18km north-east of K’gari, intercepted by the AFP and QPS, they found 51 bales tied with rope netting.
Each bale contained 40 kg of cocaine, totaling 2.34 tonnes.
Two men were arrested on the boat and two others were arrested on the coast while awaiting transport.
Three more were arrested at a nearby fast food restaurant, five in a traffic stop.
The final arrest was made in Brisbane after the AFP and QPS executed a search warrant.
All 11 men and two juveniles were charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
