Police Seize $500,000 In Pills Reportedly Destined For Music Festival

Queensland Police have intercepted about half-a-million dollars' worth of ecstasy — about 7500 pills — that they believe were all destined for Brisbane's Future Music Festival, being held at Doomben Racecourse today, according to reports.

As the Brisbane Times reports, the raids were executed as part of the half-year-long Operation Mike Order, and were carried out by detectives in QPS' anti-bikie squad, Taskforce Maxima. Along with the pills — which are allegedly tied to the Bandidos gang — $50,000 in cash was seized during the raids carried out across the city and on Russell Island yesterday.

"7500 pills is an indicator of the criminality of this syndicate and their associates; that's easy money in the scheme of things, and we've stopped that," Acting Superintendent Brendan Smith told Fairfax. "We have seen in recent months a number of people die from taking ecstasy around the country; hopefully we have prevented a death."

The belief that the drugs were bound for Future arose following a raid that took place three weeks ago in the Brisbane suburb of Bulimba, which saw a "drug production safe house" emptied by police to the tune of 3000 pills, 680 grams of cocaine, ice and $16,000 in cash. After that operation, police received intelligence "indicating they were stockpiling drugs to sell at … Future Music Festival at Doomben Raceource", according to Fairfax.

Seventeen people have been charged with 110 offences, most of them drug-related, in the wake of the raids, including a 26-year-old Carina man, a 27-year-old Wynnum man, a 29-year-old Bulimba man, a 27-year-old Balmoral man, a 26-year-old Coopers Plains man, and a 32-year-old Eagleby man. The operation was the last in Mike Order's six-month tenure; those charged are appearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

The police-backed link to Future comes as something of a double-whammy for the larger festival, with the hotly touted Asian leg of the event now cancelled following its failure to gain a license from authorities over drug and alcohol concerns.

“The Minister for Home Affairs has carefully considered and turned down the appeal by Livescape Singapore to hold the Future Music Festival Asia 2015 in Singapore," a statement said.

Future's final events for 2015 go down in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide this weekend. See our Festivals hub for more information.