World News for Students of English

07-03-2023 15:00

Australian police released details of a joint operation with US authorities to bust an international drug ring.

Australian police got information that approximately 2.4 tons of cocaine worth nearly 700 million dollars were going to be distributed throughout the country. Just off the coast of Ecuador, the US Coast Guard took out packages equaling nearly three tons of cocaine. The police used the quantity 2.4 because that was the estimate of the actual cocaine once the packaging was taken away. That amount of cocaine was equivalent to roughly half of Australia’s estimated annual consumption.

Over several weeks, officers reconstructed identical packages, and they dropped 1.2 tons of the drug into the ocean 40 miles off the coast. Three suspects were arrested in December with the fake cocaine. They had allegedly made three trips through the rough sea to collect the packages. A further nine arrests have been made and a large quantity of cash seized.

Difficult words: bust (to break), equivalent (equal in value or amount), seize (to take hold of suddenly and forcibly).

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