Fugitive accused drug lord captured
Image: NSW Police
After being on the run for weeks, Sydney fugitive Mostafa Baluch has been found hiding inside a car being transported on a truck to Queensland.
Police had been searching for the man since he cut off a tracking device and disappeared from his home in Sydney, on the Northern Beaches.
The 33-year-old is charged with financing an attempt to important 900kg of cocaine into NSW earlier this year.
It is believed he had been planning to flee overseas in hopes of dodging a potential life sentence for the alleged smuggling plan.
Acting on information from investigators, Queensland police stopped a truck as it crossed the NSW border into Queensland at 1:00 am today.
Officers located Mr Baluch, who was hiding inside a grey Mercedes. He was then arrested and taken to Southport watch-house, where a warrant was executed.
Organised crime squad detectives are now travelling to Queensland, to seek Mr Baluch’s extradition to NSW when he appears at Southport Magistrates Court later today.
Mr Baluch allegedly cut off tracking device that was on his ankle on October 25th, days after he was granted bail over the attempt to import cocaine from Ecuador to Australia.
The drugs were seized from a vessel travelling off the coast of Ecuador in April and had a street value of $270 million.
Last week police said evidence suggested Mr Baluch had a “senior role” in a wider criminal network and they had concerns for the public’s safety while he remained at large.