American authorities seized almost 1.3 tons of methamphetamine and 16 kg of cocaine bound for Australia. (Erik Anderson/AAP PHOTOS)

An American couple expected to win their share of $820 million when they organized a tonne of methamphetamine and cocaine to be shipped to Australia.

But Nasser Abo Abdo, 57, and Leonor Fajardoa, 52, will instead spend time behind bars after their plan was foiled by US Homeland Security and Australian police.

US officials in February 2019 intercepted three containers that the couple had arranged to be shipped from California to Melbourne.

Inside two of the containers were hundreds of car audio capacitor boxes concealing bags of methamphetamine and cocaine.

In total, 1,293 tons of pure methamphetamine and 15,794 kg of pure cocaine were seized by US authorities.

The street value of the drugs was over $820 million.

US officers removed the drugs before sending the containers to Melbourne, with Australian police waiting for Abo Abdo and Fajardoa to pick them up.

Instead, the couple were arrested before the containers arrived after police learned of their plans to travel abroad.

In sentencing the couple on Friday, Victorian County Court Judge Michael O’Connell said it was difficult to overstate the seriousness of the offence.

“The value of drugs is difficult to understand,” he said.

“It is possible to mention some cases worse than these, but there are not many.”

Abo Abdo and Fajardoa were expressionless as they were sentenced to 21 years in prison and 14 years behind bars respectively.

But each has already spent more than five years in prison, meaning Abo Abdo could be paroled in nine years and Fajardoa in three.

The pair each pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to import after receiving a sentencing notice.

Judge O’Connell noted that Abo Abdo played a key role in the crime because it was he who was working with the American syndicate and a criminal gang in Sydney to distribute the drugs.

The 57-year-old traveled right alongside Fajardoa to Los Angeles to pack the containers himself.

“Although your role was not that of the main offender, you were still a driving force,” Judge O’Connell said.

“You were going to make millions of dollars from the enterprise.”

Fajardoa had a smaller role, but must still have understood that a substantial quantity of drugs was being imported, the judge said.

In sentencing, Judge O’Connell took into account that the couple had no previous criminal convictions in Australia and the US.

Their time in pre-trial detention was also made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic, the distance from their children overseas and the weight of the sentences hanging over their heads.

But Judge O’Connell said it was important that the sentences deter potential drug importers from committing such serious offences.

“The positive potentials of such an enterprise will be neutralized by the risk of severe punishment,” he said.

Conspiracy to import carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Australian and US authorities said in a statement that the drug haul was at the time the largest ever directed to Australia and the largest seizure in the US.

Australian Border Force Superintendent Ben Michalke said federal authorities remained committed to cracking down on organized crime.

“This historic seizure has prevented an unprecedented volume of methamphetamine from entering our communities,” he said.

“Our coordinated efforts are crucial in detecting and disrupting criminal networks in their attempts to exploit our borders.”