One of the NSW's top criminal investigators has been arrested today, accused of masterminding a plot to import more than $120 million worth of chemicals used to make the drug 'ice'.
As Assistant Director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark Standen is at the highest level of the police force.
Now he's on the other side of the law, arrested at his Sydney office today for trying to import ephedrine chemicals to produce more than $120 million worth of the drug 'ice'.
It is alleged the 51-year-old has been working with a criminal syndicate in the Netherlands for more than a year - the group planning to bring the chemicals into Australia hidden inside a consignment of basmati rice.
Investigative journalist Neil Mercer has told LIVENEWS.com.au's Jason Morrison that Standen's methods had been called into question in the past.
"Mark Standen and the crime commission have been controversial for quite some years now. Nobody in government or in the NSW police has stepped in.
"This is the organisation that sold to the NSW - or that was instrumental in selling to the NSW public - 7kg of cocaine."
Mr Mercer says Standen had connections to the country's major criminals and his arrest is a catastrophic blow to the Crime Commission.
"He's a very very experienced, long-serving investigator of major drug importers.
"This is probably the biggest blow to drug law enforcement since, I guess, the Wood Royal Commission of the mid-90s.
"He knows all the major crooks and all the major crooks know him."
It is the highest level of corruption ever detected in law enforcement in Australian history, jeopardising the security of some of Australia's most sensitive police operations.
Mr Mercer also said Standen was known to be struggling with serious personal debt.
"This is very well known in law enforcement and in criminal circles, Mark Standen is a very big gambler.
"And I am very, very reliably informed that he has large gambling debts and that will be one of the central allegations against him."
Police are holding a media conference in Sydney's CBD this morning. LIVENEWS.com.au will bring you video as soon as it's over.