NICOSIA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) — Cypriot authorities are on the tracks of people who exported to Australia hundreds of barbecue stoves in which 645 kilograms of ecstasy crystals had been hidden, head of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit Glkykerios Leontiou said on Thursday.

“Our Unit knows which company in Cyprus arranged for the exports and the company that imported them in Australia…I do not rule out the possibility of arrests in Cyprus if Australian cooperate with us by providing evidence,” Leontiou told the state broadcaster.

It was the Cypriot Drug Law Enforcement Unit which tipped off their Australian Counterparts of the Australian Border Force in July about the possible export of the drugs laden aluminum barbecues in a container loaded on a ship in the port of Limassol.

The Australian Border Force said earlier this week it had charged a 30-year-old man from Queensland and a 33-year-old Canadian national over their involvement in the criminal enterprise after MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, weighting 645 kilos, was found under false base plates of the barbecues.

“International cooperation is very important when dealing with drugs cases. By cooperating with other countries which have the know-how and the means, we can have better results,” Leontiou added.

He said his unit has requested from the Australian police detailed evidence, which he said he expected to be given, so as to proceed with arrests in Cyprus of people involved in the shipment of the ecstasy crystals.

Leontiou did not say whether police knew where from such a large consignment of ecstasy crystals arrived in Cyprus and how.

But he said the investigation of the case also involved the United Kingdom National Crime Agency.