SYDNEY, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have arrested and charged three men after seizing over 500 kg of cocaine found in a shipping container that arrived in Sydney from Europe, police said on Tuesday.

A multi-agency strike team consisting of investigators from the Australian Federal Police and local police force in the east coast state of New South Wales announced the arrests following an investigation into workers at Sydney ports facilitating the import of drugs.

Authorities said in a statement that the investigators received intelligence that a group was planning to remove illicit drugs from an imported container while it was stored at a sea freight facility.

A 38-year-old male forklift driver at the facility was allegedly observed moving containers around the facility to access a specific container in the early hours of Sunday morning before a second man, aged 25, entered the container with a bag.

He was arrested as he exited the container, where police found tools allegedly used to cut into a false wall at the rear of the container. Specialist officers attended to remove the false wall and found 506 individual one kilogram blocks of a white powder that tested positive for cocaine.

According to police, the seized volume of cocaine had a street value exceeding 164 million Australian dollars (108 million U.S. dollars) and could have supplied 2.53 million individual deals.

The 38-year-old was arrested when he returned to the container. Both men were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and attempting to possess a commercial quantity of cocaine. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

A short time later, a 42-year-old man in possession of 200,000 Australian dollars (131,000 dollars) in cash was arrested by police while leaving the home of the 38-year-old and has been charged with dealing with money believed to be proceeds of general crime.

A further 130,000 Australian dollars (85,200 dollars) in cash was seized from the home of the 25-year-old. The strike team said that the shipping container was sent from Europe, but that inquiries into the source of the cocaine remain ongoing. ■