AUSTRALIAN residents and authorities are on high alert after five packages of suspected cocaine have been washed up at two beaches in northern Sydney.
Beachgoers discovered the controversial parcels at Freshwater and Curl Curl beaches earlier this week.
The five bricks of suspected cocaine weighed five kilograms, with an estimated street value of one million dollars.
Authorities said the large ocean swell could have brought the suspicious packages ashore.
Results of the analysis showed the cocaine blocks had been in the water for six weeks or less.
The new batch of illicit drugs showed up after more than 250 kilograms of packages containing cocaine were retrieved along the New South Wales coast in December.
Similar packages were also discovered in Western Australia and Victoria.
A study published last year named Australia the world’s biggest cocaine user, with Australians paying about $400 per gram of cocaine, according to a United Nations agency report.
