Two Greek men have been arrested in a drugs bust involving a shipping container at Port Botany in Sydney.

Police said $60m of cocaine was found in the walls of the box on Thursday.

Officers were called to a container logistics company after reports of a break-in, The Guardian reported.

One man aged 27 was held in the port and a second, aged 19, fled but was apprehended later.

The pair had travelled from Athens to recover the drugs from a box that had arrived from Italy, police added.

They do not speak English and had only been in the country for a short time.

The Australian Border Force found about 120kg of cocaine in 1kg packets.

It was not clear which vessel had brought in the container.

Detective acting superintendent Matthew Kennedy told reporters: “Their sole purpose, we will be alleging, was to come here to Australia to assist with this rip-on, rip-off.”

These kinds of smuggling schemes target legitimate companies, placing drugs in boxes and using third parties to retrieve them in other ports.

“These organised crime syndicates, they’re always trying to distance themselves as much as they can,” Kennedy added. “They’re always trying to push it off. They’re always compartmentalised.”

The officer said any attempt to break into the terminal would almost certainly end in arrest due to CCTV and the presence of security guards.

“It was probably not the smartest thing for the organised crime group to send two Greek nationals … into a port where they don’t know the lay of the land,” he added.

The pair have already appeared in court, where they were refused bail.