Two Qantas baggage handlers have been charged with cocaine smuggling while working at Sydney Airport.

Darren Bragg and Michael McPherson and three other men were arrested in connection to the alleged importation on Saturday of about 100 kilograms of cocaine that was stored in a plane’s cargo bay.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege Bragg, 61, from Coogee, and McPherson, 55, from Mascot, used their access as baggage handlers to move five large bags of cocaine from a container in a cargo hold of a plane that arrived from South Africa on Saturday.

The AFP said it is alleged the two men then loaded the bags into a car driven by Ziad El-Mustapha.

The AFP allege the 24-year-old was working for 42-year-old accused “facilitator” Ahmed Haoucher, from Padstow, who “organised figures overseas to source cocaine”.

The four men and a fifth from Hillsdale, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

Four search warrants were executed at the homes of the baggage handlers and in Hillsdale, where the AFP seized a small quantity of drugs and phones.

Mr Haoucher and the Hillsdale man were also charged with possessing a commercial quantity of cocaine, along with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.

AFP Detective Superintendent Kristie Cressy said transnational organised crime groups actively try to recruit people working in airports to facilitate the importation of illicit drugs.

“We will allege the organiser of this importation was well-organised and well-resourced,” he said.

The AFP said the group had been the subject of a 12-month investigation.

The five men appeared in Parramatta court on Sunday and were remanded in custody to reappear in November.