Illegal arms cache discovered in Aust.

Press, 1 June 1988, Page 10

Illegal arms cache discovered in Aust.

NZPA Sydney Australian customs officers said yesterday they had uncovered a huge illegal arms cache bound for Fiji.

The cache was the largest seized in the country, an Australian Customs Service spokesman, Mr Alistair Wilson, told a news conference in Sydney. “It’s enough to start a small war,” he said. The cache comprised sub-machine-guns, automatic rifles, hand grenades, mortars and antitank mines, and was found in a container on board the Anro Australia in Darling Harbour, Sydney. The consignment papers, which described the weapons as “used machinery,” showed they were shipped to Sydney from the North Yemen

port of Hodeidah, via Sri Lanka and Singapore. The Anro Australia arrived in Sydney last Tuesday. Mr Wilson said the find was the result of a routine cargo check which involved examination of the shipping documents. “Customs officers located the container, opened a number of sealed boxes and, instead of ‘used machinery,’ they found weapons,” he said. “They immediately called for military assistance to appraise the find.” Mr Wilson said inquiries were continuing and the precise inventory of the goods would not be

known until later this Earlier yesterday, the “Australian Financial Review” reported the weapons were destined for militant Indians in Fiji. The paper said it had gained information suggesting that members of the Indian community in Fiji could be planning a dramatic increase in their opposition to the regime that now rules the island republic in the wake of two military coups last year. The discovery by customs officers is the second main illegal arms find in Australia in the last three years. In early 1985, officers

in Queensland raided a house in bushland nearBeenleigh, midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. They seized a consignment of arms and ammunition, valued at sAust3s,ooo ($38,500) and destined for French settlers in New Caledonia. The seizure was at the time considered the largest one of illegal arms for export. Three people later appeared in the Supreme Court in Brisbane charged under the Customs Act with illegally stockpiling weapons, and having possession of goods for illegal export. They were each fined sAust2o,ooo.