Meth worth £5million accidentally shipped to elderly Australian couple

‘They asked each other if they ordered anything,’ says police detective following discovery of white substance

Shards of methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth or 'ice' (Radspunk/Creative Commons)

An elderly couple received a package containing more than £5m worth of methamphetamine accidentally sent to their house in the Melbourne suburbs.

The unwitting pair called police after opening a parcel to find a white substance later found to be 20 kilograms of the drug also known as crystal meth or “ice”, according to Australian media reports.

“They were unsure, they asked each other if they ordered anything,” said Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Matthew Kershaw.

A 21-year-old Melbourne man named Zhiling Ma was arrested at a property in the nearby town of Bundoora, where another 20 kilograms of methamphetamine was found and seized, the Nine News network reported.

Mr Zhiling appeared in court in Melbourne on Thursday, and was charged with trafficking and importing an illegal substance.

Police suggested the methamphetamine package signed for by the unnamed residents was down to a simple error over addresses.

“[It’s] quite incredible to comprehend that someone could be that sloppy,” Mr Kershaw added.

“It’s quite a large find to take off the streets, really,” the police detective added. “That’s 800,000 hits off the street that we've intercepted yesterday which is quite significant.”