Vintage Bentley Used in Unsuccessful Drug Smuggling Attempt

Over $100 million in drugs was concealed inside

Bentley S2
A 1960 Bentley S2 — but not the one used for smuggling purposes.
In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images

There are countless things one could do with a 1960 Bentley S2. Unfortunately, a drug smuggling operation in Australia decided that one of those things would involve using it as a hiding place for massive quantities of cocaine and meth — worth around $106 million, all told.

As Jalopnik reports, authorities in Australia detected the substantial amounts of illicit substances when they X-rayed the shipping container that contained the Bentley. The quantities were not small — over 350 pounds of meth and 66 pounds of cocaine. Besides the “trafficking in illegal drugs” factor, which is substantial, there’s also an added wrinkle when it comes to the use of a vintage car for storage — one assumes that concealing hundreds of pounds of meth can’t be good for the car’s interior.

This particular smuggling operation is far from the only one to utilize vintage cars as a means of transporting drugs. Last year, Road & Track reported on the methods used to customize different vehicles so that they could transport large quantities of weed. A few years earlier, a 1966 Chevy Impala was used to transport illicit substances.

Generally, when expensive cars overlap with drug smuggling, it’s due to someone using proceeds from the latter to purchase the former. As this case in Australia shows, some smugglers have gotten more creative — though it doesn’t seem to have worked out in this case.

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