![]() It is at least the third-largest haul of cocaine found on yachts sailing towards NSW from the South Pacific in recent months. And in mid-November, a yacht carrying 700kg of cocaine, believed to have come from South America and then Tahiti, was discovered at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney. Investigators have also noticed that crime syndicates have been adopting new ways to import drugs rather than just concealing substances in shipping containers.Īustralian Border Force has noted an increase in syndicates hiring commercial vessels from Asian ports that act as “mother ships” delivering to smaller vessels from Australia. ![]() While seizures have increased, the price that crime groups pay overseas suppliers for drugs has decreased, a strong indication that large quantities are still getting into the country. The NSW Crime Commission has said that the “high number of detections, arrests and seizures have had little, if any, deterrence value for offshore groups” and, in many cases, those operating overseas have been able to “replace persons arrested in Australia with relative ease”. The 2.8 tonnes seizure in December 2014 cost the criminal syndicate $22 million – a cost shared between a number of crime groups in a joint venture.Įstimates from law enforcement suggest that, if that particular shipment had made its way in undetected and had been distributed among drug runs and sold on the streets, even at wholesale prices, the profits would have exceeded $400 million. The NSW Crime Commission has previously said that the large amounts of cash generated from the large commercial drug deals provides “the many and varied groups with the resources to purchase expertise that in many cases outstrips the expertise that law enforcement agencies can afford”. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) acting executive director, intelligence, Richard Grant says that, while globalisation has resulted in popular services such as Netflix and Amazon, criminals have also taken advantage of it.Īs well as driving the domestic market by importing tonnes of drugs into Australia each year, many of the notorious criminals are suspected of organising dozens of Sydney’s gangland murders. These people pose Australia’s biggest organised crime threat – and they are behind the unprecedented amount of drugs breaching the country’s borders. In fact, it is estimated that a staggering 70 per cent of Australia’s high-end criminal targets and their associates are now based overseas. Law enforcement has told Fairfax Media there is an ever-increasing number of Australian crime figures now moving overseas and operating this way. The shipments are believed to have been arranged and brokered by Australian crime figures who had based themselves offshore. But Fairfax Media can reveal that law enforcement sources believe that at least three drug shipments of the same size slipped through the borders before that sting – resulting in close to nine tonnes of illicit drugs on the streets.
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