THE NETHERLANDS AUSTRALIA led an international police effort to smash a global syndicate that trafficked hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs over two decades. 
The Dutch-based ring ran an extensive, sophisticated trafficking operation to markets across Europe, Britain, the United States and Australia.
The cartel's trafficking to Australia was several tonnes over decades and worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars, only a fraction of which was ever found or seized.
The extent of the covert investigation - one of the longest in Australian Federal Police history - can only be revealed today, after one of the cartel's chiefs, James Henry Kinch, was jailed for 221/2 years in a Sydney court.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering over a plot to import 1.1â€‚tonnes of ecstasy and laundering of up to $200 million in Sydney and Melbourne, in suitcases holding up to $1 million a time.
Given time spent on remand, Kinch will be eligible for parole in eight years. " Kinch, 57, had seduced the then NSW Crime Commissioner assistant director, Mark Standen, to join him. Standen was arrested in 2008, and in 2011 was jailed for 22 years. The AFP-led probe extended to 14 countries.
The cartel godfathers, Dutchmen Peter Dekker and Ron Haklander, are now serving eight years in jail. At least 20 cartel members in Holland and Australia are now in jail.Another principal was thrown out of the window of an office block in Holland. Others who aided police are in hiding or protection programs.