Australian and American police say they have smashed a multi-national drug cartel, culminating in the seizure of $16 million of cocaine.
Police said the attempted importation was a sophisticated operation masterminded across at least three different countries.
Three Mexicans are due to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday charged with attempting to import the 65kg of cocaine.
"This is quite a sophisticated concealment, obviously we will be alleging that the three Mexican nationals who arrived in Australia were sent out to help facilitate the importation, so it's involved quite substantial planning," Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Tim Morris said.
The cocaine was concealed in containers carrying cement cylinders, flower pots and statues, weighing 210kg each.
On Friday, AFP officers executed search warrants on four properties across Melbourne, resulting in the arrests of the two Mexican men and one woman and the recovery of the cocaine.
"We believe the cocaine originated in South America and has had to transit through the US, into Australia, so quite a degree of planning involved in this attempt," Assistant Commissioner Morris said.
"We suspect there's a local end to this syndicate. Those investigations are continuing, so we're not going to speculate about who or when action might be taken, other than to say we expect substantially more investigations to happen over
the next weeks or months and even more arrests."
Police said a company was set up as part of the importation to add legitimacy to the shipment.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US ICE) officer Erik Cortes praised the co-operation between Australian and American authorities.
He said it is hard to know how significant the bust is in terms of bringing down international drug rings.
"The investigation is ongoing, but I think it's a significant tier, it's not necessarily the size of the seizure but the sophistication of the network," Mr Cortes said.
US authorities were aware of the shipment when it entered the US, and contacted Australian authorities.
It was then monitored as it made its way to Melbourne.
Assistant Commissioner Morris said international drug rings were targeting Australia due to the high prices for cocaine.
"It's quite a lucrative industry and as long as Australians are prepared to pay such high prices by global standards for their recreational drugs, we're going to see global drug syndicates target Australian markets with importation such as this."
Cocaine retails around $120,000 to $180,000 per kilo at a wholesale level and sells for about $350 per gram on the streets.