Sailing into Lake Macquarie as the sun is setting would go unnoticed by just about everyone apart from a few preoccupied fishermen hoping to hook a yellowtail.
There's little crime in the area, no water police and no reason for Border Force agents to be monitoring the sleepy coastline about 130km north of Sydney.
But that all changed on a warm spring afternoon in 2017 when three yachties were busted by Australian Federal Police with 700kg of cocaine on board their 42ft catamaran.
The $245million bust sent shockwaves through the community mostly populated by sailors, young families, retirees and Newcastle Knights fans.
It also stunned organised crime investigators who quickly realised the large saltwater lake had become a major way for Colombian and Mexican drug kingpins to smuggle narcotics into Australia.
An even larger shipment, this time meth worth $495million, was seized in April 2020 - cementing fears that Lake Macquarie had become Australia's 'ocean superhighway' for trafficking drugs.
Three yachties were busted by Australian Federal Police detectives with 700kg of cocaine on board their 42ft catamaran in 2017 (pictured)
Police found 991kg of meth worth $495 million in April 2020 (pictured) cementing fears that Lake Macquarie had become Australia's 'ocean superhighway' for trafficking drugs
'I think we would be naive to say that there aren't a lot more narcotics that have made it through the lake,' NSW Police investigator turned private sector consultant Peter Moroney told Daily Mail Australia.
'Certainly law enforcement did a great job in nailing the yachts they have but if I was a betting man I would say there are definitely a lot that would have made it through.'
In the past two decades most drug shipments would come through the Sydney Heads or further south along the Wollongong coast.
Billion-dollar drug cartels however 'learn quick' and at some point in the past 10 years they decided to opt for a more unsuspecting drop-off point with easy highway access to the major cities.
Bigger ports such as Broken Bay on the Central Coast, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Coffs Harbour, Port Kembla and Eden all have local marine area command stations - Lake Macquarie doesn't.
The map shows how Lake Macquarie is mostly unguarded by NSW water police
The initial $245million cocaine bust sent shockwaves through the Lake Macquarie community mostly populated by sailors, young families, retirees and Newcastle Knights fans
The massive drug haul also stunned organised crime investigators who quickly came to the realisation the large saltwater lake (pictured) had become a major target of Colombian and Mexican drug kingpins looking to smuggle narcotics into Australia
While using Lake Macquarie to smuggle their goods, overseas drug lords exploited the information gap between local cops on the hunt for drunk drivers and bar brawlers and intelligence investigators in capital cities trying to crack international crime syndicates.
'There is obviously close cooperation between state police forces and investigators at the federal level but the overwhelming majority of police that are targeting major organised crime are based in capital cities like Sydney,' Mr Moroney said.
'Resources can only be spread so far
