A woman charged with drug trafficking after police allegedly intercepted a vehicle with $4.7 million worth of meth in it on the Gold Coast has been granted bail under strict conditions.
On Monday night, a car was pulled over on the M1 at Mudgeeraba by drug and serious crime group detectives.
Police arrested and charged 41-year-old Eagleby woman Jemma-Lee Sales, who they alleged was the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle.
Ms Sales appeared in Southport Magistrates Court today, charged with drug trafficking, drug possession and possessing anything used in the commission of crime.
She was also handed a new charge of receiving or possessing property obtained from trafficking or supplying.
In the car, police allegedly discovered two sports bags filled with 35 vacuum-sealed bags of methylamphetamine, hidden in what appeared to be imported tea.
Police said the 35 kilograms of methylamphetamine had an estimated street value of $4,725,000.
The seizure was part of a targeted intercept by police, who alleged Ms Sales was acting as a courier for a syndicate that was trafficking drugs interstate.
Police subsequently raided a property in Eagleby, where detectives allegedly found a large amount of cash and 1kg of cannabis.
Ms Sales’s defence lawyer Alan Phillips told the court his client was a “low-level member of [the] syndicate”.
She has no prior criminal history.
Ms Sales will next appear in the Southport Magistrates Court on March 28.
A 44-year-old Eagleby man was also charged in relation to the matter with possessing dangerous drugs, possessing property obtained from the proceeds of crime, possession of things used in the commission of a crime and and possessing a drug utensil.
He will face Beenleigh Magistrates Court on April 8.