An Australian man will face court in Perth charged with 89 people smuggling offences, many relating to last year's deadly Christmas Island boat disaster.
Iranian-born Ali Khorram Heydarkhani was arrested at Sydney airport on Thursday morning after being deported from Indonesia.
The alleged people smuggling mastermind - also known as Haydar Khani and Ali Hamid - later appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court, where a magistrate ordered his extradition to Western Australia.
The 40-year-old did not apply for bail and will face Perth Magistrates Court at a later date.
Heydarkhani - an Australian citizen since 2003 - is accused of smuggling four boatloads of asylum seekers into Australia, including the so-called SIEV 221.
At least 30 people - mostly from Iran and Iraq - died when that boat smashed against rocks and broke apart off Christmas Island's Rocky Point in appalling conditions on December 15.
A further 20 people are also believed to have died but their bodies were never recovered. Forty-two people survived.
Heydarkhani was detained by Indonesian authorities on January 25.
Indonesia was able to deport him, rather than extradite him, because he had overstayed his visa.
Thirty-five of the 89 charges, which carry maximum penalties of between 10 and 20 years' jail, relate to the SIEV 221 disaster.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said Heydarkhani's arrest was a warning to people smugglers.
"People have to understand that if they engage in the terrible crime of people smuggling, Australian law enforcement agencies and their police partners in the region will do everything they can to frustrate, prosecute and punish those who seek to make a profit by endangering the lives of others," he told reporters in Canberra.
"Those people who seek to lure, in some cases people who are desperate, into unseaworthy vessels where people's lives are at risk, where people perish, will be punished."
But Mr O'Connor later stressed Heydarkhani should be considered innocent until proven guilty: "These are allegations - they have to be proven in a court of law."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard congratulated police on the "significant arrest".
In Perth meanwhile, three alleged Indonesian people smugglers who survived the SIEV 221 disaster made a brief appearance in the Perth Magistrates Court.
Abdul Rasjid, 60, Hardi Hans, 22, and Supriyadi, 32, appeared via video link from Hakea prison charged with one count each of illegally bringing a group of non-citizens into Australia.
The three will reappear in the court on June 23.
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