Border police intercepted a PlayStation 5 filled with cocaine in Sydney and have charged three men for allegedly importing 1.5kg of the illicit substance.
The cocaine has an estimated street value of $346,500.
The Australian Border Force cottoned onto a “suspicious consignment” that had been sent from Portugal last month and, after opening up the package, officers discovered a rare PlayStation 5.
Upon further investigation, they discovered the cocaine nested inside.
An image provided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) shows the packaged white powder hidden in the device, visible from a cavity where one of its cooling fans would have been.
After confirming the drugs, police then replaced the package with a decoy and delivered it to its intended Tweed Heads address where it was picked up by an unsuspecting 48-year-old man.
He and two other men were arrested and charged with “attempting to possess a marketable quantity of border controlled drugs” and could face 25 years in prison.
Wait a second, these aren't computer parts! Image: Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police Detective Acting Superintendent Ben Moses said multi-agency taskforces were an important step in stopping the delivery of illicit substances into Australia.
“Our goal is to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs from overseas and onto Australian streets,” Detective Acting Superintendent Moses said.
“Illicit drugs continue to enrich organised crime, enabling them to buy more guns, fuelling more violence and making our communities less safe.”
The PlayStation 5 is one of the hottest products on the planet right now with stock flying off retailers’ shelves and almost no Australian stores listing the consoles on their websites.
According to Sony’s latest financial figures, announced last week, the Japanese electronics behemoth sold 13.4 million PlayStation 5 units in its first year despite the global chip shortage hampering production.
There's a hot secondary market for Playstation 5s. Image: eBay
Sony took a loss from the PlayStation 5 release, copping a year-on-year loss in operating income thanks to “strategic price points” it set for the new hardware – in other words, Sony initially chose to sell the PlayStation 5 for less than it cost.
While the low price point has kept PlayStation 5 sales moving, it has seen scalpers enjoy a decent margin on secondary markets like eBay where the devices are being listed for twice their retail value.
No doubt some gamers will be especially mad that drug traffickers are gutting these hard-to-get consoles and filling them with cocaine in an attempt to evade law enforcement.
