A Sydney man has been arrested and approximately 600 litres of GBL seized as part of an organised crime investigation.
Information obtained by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) led investigators to suspect a man in Sydney was planning to acquire a large amount of GBL.
GBL is known to reduce behavioural inhibitions in small doses, but larger ones can induce sleep and impede the formation of memories. It is often used by offenders to enable rapes and other sex offences, and can be fatal if a high dose is administered.
Enquiries by AFP investigators identified a potential shipment of ground freight to be delivered to a property in the northern Sydney suburb of Oxford Falls associated with a 46-year-old Liverpool man. The shipment was intercepted and a quantity of GBL substituted with an inert substance.
The 46-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly accessed the consignment at Oxford Falls. It will be alleged in court that the man had obtained containers and other items to divide the shipment for further distribution.
Two search warrants were executed yesterday and last night in Oxford Falls and Liverpool.
He is expected to face Sydney Central Local Court today (Thursday, 17 September 2020).
AFP Detective Superintendent Geoff Turner said the investigation into this matter is still very much underway.
"We will work closely with our colleagues in Australia and overseas to continue the excellent police work which lead to this arrest. Our ongoing enquiries will focus on who supplied this substance that this man is Sydney was allegedly trying to possess, and who the down-the-line recipients may have been," he said.
"GBL is one of the more dangerous substances we encounter, and its effects in the community can be devastating. This drug is used by offenders to commit rapes and other sexual crimes, which causes life-long damage to victims, and ongoing health and societal issues that State and Territory police and health providers have to deal with."
The Liverpool man has been charged with attempted possession of a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs contrary to section 307.5 of the Criminal Code (Cth). The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.
