Australian police have seized 2.3 tonnes of cocaine from a broken-down boat off the coast of Queensland, authorities said Monday.
Eleven men and two minors were arrested, including the ship's crew and others who were waiting on shore to collect the illegal cargo.
The street value of the drug was estimated at A$760 million ($490 million; £388 million), with the potential to be distributed in 11.7 million separate street transactions, which in fact the largest cocaine seizure 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.
Motorcycle gangs are notorious in Australia for drug-related violence, with more than 1,000 shootings recorded since the 1980s.
The recent cocaine seizure is part of a wider investigation into the Comanchero gang, dubbed Operation Tyrrendor, which began last month.
Authorities said they had received intelligence suggesting a criminal syndicate with links to the gang was planning to import illegal drugs into Australia.
This follows reports last week that the Colombian navy had intercepted a semi-submersible carrying cocaine to Australia.
Investigators told reporters in Brisbane the record 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 trace a fishing boat recently purchased by a 35-year-old man.
It was being used to transport a larger mothership's shipment of cocaine to the Queensland coast on Saturday night when it suffered a mechanical problem, police said.
Stranded about 18 km from the northeast tip of K'gari, it was intercepted by the AFP and QPS, who found 51 bales tied with a rope net.
Each bale contained 40 kg of cocaine, a total of 2.34 tonnes.
Two men were arrested on the boat and two others were arrested on the coast while waiting for the cargo.
Three other arrests were made at a nearby fast food restaurant, and five others at a traffic stop.
The latest arrest took place in Brisbane after the AFP and QPS executed a search warrant.
The 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.
