As law obligations, manpower, and technology means progress, smugglers connected with the illicit trade change their compliance policies (Hughes et al., 2020). Such assistance is very significant because the arrest of drugs at the borders of the sea gives the chance to seize illicit materials in the most immediate way, as a result, it will reduce supplies to Australia. 16 February. In Australia, the issue of drug trafficking thresholds has risen to the fore, mainly in the context of concern about the lack of consistency across drug quantities in different state systems. As noted above, Australia is in the minority of countries that specify quantities for distinguishing between drug offences with different penalty scales. Police Detective . Consequently, collectively with border guards, the Australian Federal Police is involved in the struggle against drug trafficking. "There has beena notable increase in OMCG members travelling to the Pacific since2016, most commonly to the Cook Islands and Fiji.". International Journal of Drug Policy, 84, 1-11. As summarised at an international meeting on threshold quantities. Those quantities deemed implausible were removed; for example, reported consumption of 20 grams of heroin which would be toxic. However, this is a complex process, and customs authorities usually seem to expose only a few personalities while others adapt to new conditions. The syndicate also has the ability to impregnate cocaine into items like plastic tables and mobile phones. Such a question has particular importance for three reasons. For example, as shown in Table 3, in every state regular ecstasy users reported consuming and/or purchasing quantities for personal use that exceeded the trafficable threshold. The dark web drug market has also been . Other items used to conceal the cocaine include large bolts, engine parts, shampoo and face creams. Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Australia. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Dutch authorities have arrested 57-year old Canadian national Tse Chi Lop at the request of the Australia Federal Police after a long probe into drug trafficking in . The article states that the successful opening of the drug business system is a continuation of the victorious action against drug trafficking and its importation into Australia. Based on the report released by the National Drug Strategy Household Survey or NDSHS, an estimated 16.4% or about 3.4 million of the total population in Australia had used an illicit drug in the previous 12 months.And it had spent 11.3 billion illicitly on substance abuse in 2020 based on the drug use trends in Australia. In Fiscal Year 2020, CBP seized over 42,645 pounds of cocaine, 5,222 pounds of heroin, 324,973 pounds of marijuana, 156,901 pounds of methamphetamine, and 3,967 pounds of fentanyl. Legal thresholds are significant yet controversial tools in the sentencing of drug offenders (Hughes 2010a, 2003). Two additional solutions are suggested. Australian Border Force. In a statement, they said their motivation is to target mining and oil companies, military and police systems in Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Chile, Colombia and elsewhere to sabotage corporations and systems they said exploit natural resources and support US interests. It is challenging to develop a single strategy for ways to overcome the problem, which makes the work of border agencies more complicated as there is no single strategy that they should follow. Further data on the frequency of high consumption and high purchasing behaviours is also needed. For each survey, data on quantity consumed in a typical and heavy session was extracted by state, then dosage conversions applied (to convert all dosage units into grams) and the mean, median and range calculated by state and by drug type. Nicholas Cowdery is from the Faculty of Law, The University of New South Wales. Reasons for such differences remain unknown. In one operation, the AFP and their Colombian counterparts focused on a cartel moving large quantities of cocaine (up to 500 kilograms) to Europe or Africa (as intermediate countries) where it is broken up into small quantities and forwarded to other countries including Australia. This is exemplified by considering patterns of consumption and purchasing from two of the five drugs examinedheroin and MDMA. Several difficulties confront border agencies face while dealing with and enhancing the ways to solve this issue. The New Zealand and Australian prime ministers publicly clash over the deportation of Kiwi criminals. This is particularly when compared with the sanction for simple use or possessiona maximum of two years imprisonment or a more probably, a simple caution or diversion (and no criminal record; Hughes & Ritter 2008). Moreover, there is wide variation across states. In so doing, it is feared that thresholds reduce the capacity to sanction drug traffickers on the basis of their intended or actual harm. Some states have almost no evidence that users exceed current thresholds for personal use alone (eg Tasmania and Queensland, reflecting in large part the much higher trafficable thresholds). Thus, they initiated the investigation of the Victorian Joint Task Force on Organized Crime. The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and not necessarily those of the Commonwealth. Lee, 65, is a former prison mate of Tse's suspected of being involved in drug trafficking for four decades. It is important to note that UNODC is not only a development agency although many of its programs provide development-related benefits. But a new Australian report suggests that it's more prolific here than most people think, or perhaps even care to admit. "In a region plagued by 'unmet development challenges', transnational crime and illicit drugs are a cross-cutting threat to development, securityand governance in the Pacific," the report said. Table 1 outlines the trafficable threshold quantities for heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and cannabis. The fact that this is how police and prosecutors operate in Queensland, France and most other criminal justice systems (Hughes 2010a) shows this is not only possible but a more common practice. Please try again later. (2023, February 16). There are limitations to the IDRS and EDRS. It is undeniable that those stocks threaten public health, changing the state economy and eventually supporting drug companies and dealers in Southeast Asia. Key points: Thomas Booker was a police officer from 2014 to 2018. CNN . A handgun was located inside the car. The cartel uses people on student visas, who receive the air cargo consignments from FedEx Colombia and then send money to Colombia. Secret agents targeting drug cartels in Australia exposed in data hack. Our experts can deliver a High-Level Drug Trafficking in Australia essay. A minority of countries specify actual quantities (eg Germany; Hughes 2010a, 2003). In conclusion, legal thresholds for drug trafficking have long been central to the Australian response to drug offenders, justified under goals of delivering proportionality and effective responses to those who inflict widespread sufferingdrug traffickers (MCCOC 1998b). Dark web drug trafficking has been an increasingly prominent issue since the inception of the illicit drugs website, Silk Road. According to the 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), an estimated 9.0 million (43%) people aged 14 and over in Australia had illicitly used a drug at some point in their lifetime (including the non-medical use of pharmaceuticals), and an estimated 3.4 million (16.4%) had used an illicit drug in the previous 12 months. This is a joint media release between the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. They use this knowledge to find the least controlled way and efficiently deliver the required goods. He will be sentenced at a later date. You are free to use it to write your own assignment, however you must reference it properly. Crackdown operations. Media articles explain the problem of narcotics trafficking across the Australian border. Each triggers increasingly severe penalty ranges that can be applied, such as up to 15 years imprisonment for a trafficable quantity and life imprisonment for a large commercial quantity in New South Wales (Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, 1986 (NSW)). Police in PNG sayoutdatedlaws have left them unable to lay drug charges against the Australian manager of a Port Moresby hotel where an alleged clandestine meth lab and illegal firearms were discovered. There are 5 different quantity ranges under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act. Third, it is known that an unjustified conviction for dealing will often impose social and individual harms which far exceed the harm associated with the drug in question (MCCOC 1998b: 87). At the same time, it was verified that such methods facilitated the detention of a smuggler at the border by gathering information and using specially trained dogs to search for narcotics (Man jailed for role in 300kg cocaine import to Victoria, 2021). Drug trafficking in Australia is deemed a very serious offence, one for which legislators and courts have ruled general deterrence is paramount and little mercy should be shown (Clune [1989] VR 567, OBryan and Marks JJ, 576). We target criminal gangs through the . However, drug trafficking examples can also concern prescription drugs that people tend to abuse, like Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone and Vicodin. Were working to restore it. One group is allegedly linked to a Queensland accounting firm that caters to Spanish speakers, and an Australian man with links to the Bandidos.Credit: The leak sheds light on the vast scale of drug importation into Australia and the webs of businesses such as gyms, luxury car dealerships, hairdressers and a nightclub set up to launder drug money. If you use an assignment from StudyCorgi website, it should be referenced accordingly. Drug trafficking and money laundering are global issues that are interconnected. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory were excluded from this analysis for two reasonsthe prior analysis of the Australian Capital Territory (Hughes & Ritter in press) and lack of adequate data on illicit drug use and purchasing for the Northern Territory. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2019 told Australia not to "deport your problems", saying the Australian government had to stop sendingconvicted criminals who had spent most of their lives in Australiaback to New Zealand. Footing the bill for these kinds of initiatives, he said,would save the economies where the drugs were headed"tenfold" in the long run. For each state, the ability of the legal threshold to successfully filter out drug users from drug traffickers (ie the reasonableness of the assumption that all who exceed the trafficable threshold warrant severe charge/sanction for trafficking) was examined using two metrics of the quantity of drug a user is likely to possess for personal use alone: Metric 1: User patterns of use; that is, quantity of drugs that a user is likely to possess for a single session of personal use. Some of the AFPs operations in the leak led to arrests in Australia and overseas, apparently causing significant disruption to drug supply chains. https://studycorgi.com/high-level-drug-trafficking-in-australia/. They are resilient, opportunistic and involved in a wide range of serious crimes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, firearms offences and high-level violence. The kingpin received $100 million in tracked international transfers in the first four months of 2019 alone. Drug laws in Australia are complex - some laws are federal, while others are state or territory based. Australia is a current member of the CND (until 2013) and is an observer of the CCPCJ (however, Australia works closely with current members through the Western . For more information on the penalties that apply in your state, refer to the state and territory . Findings from the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS). Nutt DJ, King LA & Phillips LD 2010. According to Crave, she opens up about "how she became a mule for an international drug trafficking network" during the doc, and shares her "stranger-than-fiction story." "Stopping crime at the source is a key strategy for the AFP and partnerships with Pacific policing organisations are resulting in a more-hostile environment for criminal activity,"an AFP spokesperson said. After reaching Vietnam, part of the drugs headed to sea from Ho Chi Minh City's Cat Lai port, bound for Manila. News Corp Australia. The pair was refused police bail and . Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable health burden in Australia. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/australias-drug-use-drives-trafficking-crime-in-pacific/100836834, Australian hotel manager caught up in PNG drug bust, Australia's biggest drug bust: $1 billion worth of cocaine linked to Mexican cartel intercepted, 'Pincers are closing': Ukrainian forces under pressure as Russians shell roads out of Bakhmut, Four in hospital after terrifying home invasion by gang armed with machetes, knives, hammer, 'We have got the balance right': PM gives Greens' super demands short shrift, Crowd laughs as Russia's foreign minister claims Ukraine war 'was launched against us', The tense, 10-minute meeting that left Russia's chief diplomat smoking outside in the blazing sun, 'Celebrity leaders': Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley take veiled jabs at Donald Trump in CPAC remarks. The maximum penalties for cultivation of controlled plants are: life imprisonment for cultivating commercial quantity of controlled plants (s.303.4 Criminal Code) Moreover, in a heavy session, 80 percent of regular users in New South Wales reported consuming more than the trafficable threshold quantity (18% in Western Australia and 30% in South Australia). In addition, the problem is the speedy adoption of traders to the current conditions. It is difficult to definitively estimate what proportion and how often users are placed at risk of unjustified charge or sanction. The maritime corridor that is used for legitimate trade between Australian, Asian and American markets is also a key transit hub fororganised crime syndicates and drug cartels, in what is called thePacific "drug highway", according to the report. This process was repeated for Metric 2 using data from the IDRS and EDRS only (data on purchasing was unavailable from the NDSHS). This study was funded by a grant from the Commonwealth of Australiathe Criminology Research Grants. The U.S. and Australian police jointly handled the case, uncovered an international drug trafficking syndicate, and intercepted 2.4 metric tons of cocaine on a ship bound for Australia off the coast of South America, with a market value of up to 1 billion Australian dollars (approximately NT$20.6 billion). An investigation by the Australian Federal Police began when border guards detained a man transporting heroin. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade leads diplomatic engagement on these issues and also provides practical cooperation and assistance to help counter trafficking and smuggling in our region. Australians' meth, cocaine use leading to growing drug-related problems across Pacific, says report. The AFP is working with our partners in impacted regions to mitigate any potential threats to the safety of people, or ongoing investigations.. The AFP, which was first made aware of the data breach when it was contacted by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on October 4, is attempting to stem potential damage to its operations. In 2010, more than 26,000 people from all Australian jurisdictions aged 12 years and over were sampled (AIHW 2011). Under such a situation, circumstances where users exceed the thresholds would be much less troubling, as in the absence of any additional evidence of trafficking intent, the user would be appropriately charged with a simple possession offence (and liable to a much smaller maximum penalty eg 2 years imprisonment). If Australia starts moving from criminal to civil penalties for drugs, the thresholds for drug offences will need to be raised and the severity of criminal sanctions reduced. Operation Geronimo: Resolving Legal Issues, Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia, Drug dog affects: Accounting for the broad social, emotional and health impacts of general drug detection dog operations in Australia, Structural and functional changes in an Australian high-level drug trafficking network after exposure to supply changes. First, the deeming provision that reverses the onus of proof onto alleged drug offenders found in possession of the threshold quantity or greater is highly exceptional, compared with other countries drug trafficking thresholds and the standard Australian law and criminal justice responses to serious crimes. They are: Not more than the small quantity Retrieved from https://studycorgi.com/high-level-drug-trafficking-in-australia/, StudyCorgi. Jodie Anne Croul pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including drug trafficking . Drug trafficking examples typically take the form of more illicit, or scheduled, drugs, like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines. "High-Level Drug Trafficking in Australia." A number of desirable indices such as purchases under heavy conditions were unavailable. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 27(1), 1-20.. Dr Caitlin Hughes, Nicholas Cowdery AM, QC and Professor Alison Ritter, Copyright 2023 UNSW MEDICINE - National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Authorised by National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre - Due to the undercover nature and absence of provable data on this issue, it is challenging to estimate the market area of the trade with perfect correctness (Hughes et al., 2020). Attorney-Generals Department (AGD) 2011. Global Crime, 21(1), 28-50. Australia is strongly committed to countering people smuggling and human trafficking. In all jurisdictions except Queensland, Australian drug trafficking thresholds are attached to deemed supply laws, which reverse the traditional burden of proof from prosecutors onto defendants. In September 2019, when he and five other people tried to travel to Panama, they were denied entry due to the blue notice and simply returned to Colombia. By contrast, cannabis users have the least evidence of exceeding the thresholds, with no instance where a cannabis user consumes more than the trafficable quantity and only one instance where the maximum purchased exceeded the trafficable threshold quantity. Web. Most notably, Tasmania employs considerably greater threshold quantities for all illicit drugs. The approach taken in this work is subject to the limits of currently available data. He said it was important "that we support initiatives back into the country to which they are being deported to ensure that they are able to integrate back into society". The policy provides to participate in the improvement of international standards on punishment for drug trafficking. This is particularly true for MDMA and for users in the states of New South Wales and South Australia. Learn about common drug offences, medicinal use of illicit drugs, drugs and driving, and workplace drug testing. Therefore, another critical strategy at the international level is to maintain and develop a collective policy to prevent drug trafficking. The cases of several Australians potentially facing the death penalty in China for drug trafficking are centred around the southern province of Guangdong, a notorious hub for methamphetamine . For both proponents and opponents concern is twofold. This "highway", it said,was servicing a growing demand for illicit drugs in the Pacific Islands. Problems with some sensitive areas of borders and the fact that contrabandists have a deep understanding of transport routes are also challenging. Indeed, with one exception, the maximum quantities reported by cannabis users were 3.535 times under the threshold. [2] It is one of the most critical challenges for customs, border, and law enforcement officials. drug trafficking and terrorism. 25 years' imprisonment for trafficking marketable quantity of controlled drugs (s.302.3 Criminal Code) 10 years' imprisonment for trafficking controlled drugs (s.302.4 Criminal Code). Conversely, opponents of threshold quantities argue that specification of a quantity of drug as the cut off between offences can unwittingly lead to inappropriate or unjust sentencing of drug offenders. Many overseas police agencies are also affected. While it must be emphasised that circumstances of high use and purchase are not going to occur all the time, this clearly shows the erroneousness of the assumption that the thresholds effectively filter out all users from traffickers. International Journal of Drug Policy, 67, 63-71. To assist in this endeavour, all Australian states and territories have adopted legal thresholds that specify quantities of drugs over which offenders are either presumed to have possessed the drugs for the purposes of supply and liable to sanction as drug traffickers (up to 15 years imprisonment in most states), or in the case of Queensland, liable to sanctions equivalent to drug traffickers (up to 25 years imprisonment). Australian police have described the action as one of the biggest blows to organized crime by seizing about 1.5 tonnes of drugs, including more than . Combatting these transnational crimes requires close cooperation bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally. Such laws mean that possession of the trafficable threshold amount will constitute a presumption of trafficking placing the onus on the alleged offender to prove that the possessed amount was not for the purposes of trafficking (deemed supply). The upper quantities were checked with a number of key experts (n=6) to verify if they were within the maximum range that could be consumed in a single continuous session of use without sleep. It uses a complex structure of interconnected companies to assist in the placement, distribution and integration of the proceeds of crime with company directors who are direct family members including his brother with an interest in 14 companies, the ACIC said. The study which claims to be an Australian first, is called 'The Child Next Door.' It examines the issue of child exploitation and trafficking in Queensland and looks into the way children are mistreated. However, it is also clear that the level of risk can be mitigated by better design. The logistical elasticity of criminal gangs prevents national authorities from responding quickly to problems and eliminating them. (2015). "When they are returned, they're returned with no cultural understanding, language skills of those countries support networks to receive them or prospects of work. They have been converted for the current analysis into mixed grams based on the median 201011 retail purity in each state for seizures 2 grams (ACC 2012). Moreover, when there is a suspicion that a certain person may be transporting narcotics, it produces a prompt response. 4 Drugs and Schools: Legal Issues the duty is clearly to take reasonable care to avoid harm and to take positive action to prevent injury; and the duty is not that of strict liability like WorkCover which provides automatic compensation to workers injured at work, without any negligence having to be proved. . The Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR) by the Australian Crime Commission provides statistics view of the drug trafficking arrest and an interception. The person is deemed to have supplied the drugs based only on weight.2 No other evidence is required. This, is turn, could foster higher levels of community dissatisfaction and lower deterrence for current and would-be traffickers. However as shown in Table 2, examining the maximum quantity that a heroin user might be reasonably expected to possess for their personal use alone, users can equal or exceed the thresholds in one state for a typical session of use, in three states for a heavy session and in two states for purchasing. At the same time, there is an opportunity to take part in a common operational struggle against narcotics trafficking. This paper summarises key findings from a Criminology Research Grant funded project. In this study, the ACT work was extended to evaluate the most pertinent drug trafficking thresholdthe trafficable thresholdin six Australian states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia) against drug user behaviour and knowledge of Australian drug markets. Deemed supply in Australian drug trafficking laws: A justifiable legal provision? On the threshold: How relevant should quantity be in determining intent to supply. Thousands of kilograms of illegal substances cross international borders daily, entering the lives of drug dealers and addicts. The examination is performed with the aid of specially trained dogs that smell narcotics. The article states that the successful opening of the drug business system is a continuation of the victorious action against drug trafficking and its importation into Australia. Another challenge occurs at the international level and concerns the difficulty in coordinating efforts between national customs authorities. Illicit drugs include illegal drugs (such as cannabis, opiates, and certain types of stimulants ), pharmaceutical drugs (such as pain-killers and tranquillisers) when used for non-medical purposes, and other substances used inappropriately . Inspectors face the operational hurdle of including the exponential increases in contract sizes with only a restricted number of workforce and tools of their control. The group claiming responsibility for the data hacking, Guacamaya, the Mayan name for macaw, said it has environmental and anti-imperialist motives. Since 2021, more than 250kg of Afghan-produced methamphetamine, with an estimated. Australia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; Colombia's most wanted drug lord Otoniel captured. In the Declaration on the Rule of . "Officials reported that the increase in drug offences indicated the growing presence of methamphetamine in the kingdomand[that] correlated with an increase in drug-related crime such as robberies and house break-ins," the report said. A number of laws are employed for sanctioning alleged drug traffickers in Australia, but most jurisdictions also have laws to sanction solely on the weight of the drug found. The Advertiser writes that "Booker served as a police officer for four years before leaving the job in 2018", but later in the same article states "He was fired from the . Insufficient personnel and professional support, limitations of sources at regular frontier checkpoints (such as tracking dog) make exposing smugglers virtually impossible. The prohibited drugs trade imposes substantial health and execution costs at the global level also. Recognition of the lack of uniformity led to specification of the Australian Model Criminal Code of serious drug offences (MCCOC 1998b) and a single set of threshold quantities for all states and territories in Australia to adopt (set for a trafficable threshold quantity at 2 mixed grams of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine or MDMA and 250 grams of cannabis). That said, legal thresholds are used primarily to facilitate responses to high-level offenders; that is, drug traffickers. The possibility of being detected and apprehended by customs and law enforcement authorities forces illegal groups to resort to special purchase costs associated with additional disguises and cover-ups. The cocaine was destined to be sold on the streets of Australia. Enactment by other jurisdictions would lower most threshold quantities, particularly in Tasmania, but also in the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The table above drug categories in Australia outlines the maximum Australian drug penalties and drug trafficking in Australia penalties according to the drug quantity and type. StudyCorgi. For MDMA, under typical conditions, most users again reported consuming less than the thresholds. Yet, in spite of known risks from adopting such thresholds, particularly of an unjustified conviction of a user as a trafficker, the capacity of Australian legal thresholds to deliver proportional sanctioning has been subject to limited research to date. "This is the biggest blow against drug trafficking in our country this century," he said . Information that could affect ongoing police operations or court cases, disclose novel police methods or put people in danger is not being published. "The response by Pacific states and traditional partners must be rapid, proactiveand adaptive," the reportnoted. A recent drug arrest in Australia has links to South Africa. March 19, 2012 -- The international swimsuit model accused of being the mastermind of a worldwide drug ring run out of a Hollywood apartment has been arrested in Australia after skipping out on . Deemed supply laws are inconsistent with Australian criminal law, Deemed supply laws are inconsistent with international drug trafficking laws, Deemed supply laws conflict with the goals of Australias National Drug Strategy, Deemed supply laws threaten confidence in the Australian judicial system.