Elderly couple end up with 20 kilos of meth worth $7 million after parcel gets wrongly delivered to them
Law enforcement in Melbourne, Australia, said an elderly couple unwittingly signed for a package on Wednesday containing 10 million Australian dollars' ($7 million) worth of methamphetamine, which was accidentally shipped to their residence.
Police received a call from the couple, who lived just outside Melbourne, saying they called immediately after opening the huge, enigmatic parcel and discovering it contained bags of a crystalline white substance, CNN reports.
"They were unsure of the significance of the find," Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Matthew Kershaw told reporters on Thursday. "They asked each other if they had ordered anything and it was quite clear they hadn't ordered anything online or through any type of services. They thought it might have been a wrong address."
According to authorities, the package contained at least 20 kilograms (44 lbs) of the illegal drug. "(It's) quite incredible to comprehend that someone could be that sloppy," Kershaw added. Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police have asked that the media keep the aged couple's identity a secret.
That said, a 21-year-old man was arrested in the nearby town of Bundoora just hours after the elderly couple's shocking discovery. When authorities conducted a search of the address, a further 20 kilograms of methamphetamine were found.
According to the outlet, Zhiling Ma was charged with trafficking and importing a marketable quantity of a border patrol drug. He appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday.
"It's quite a large find to take off the streets, really," Kershaw said of the drug haul. "That's 800,000 hits off the street that we've intercepted which is quite significant."
Ma's next court appearance is scheduled for July 29.