Maritime drug smuggling into Australia refers to the smuggling of illicit drugs into Australia by sea. While much contemporary Australian media coverage has focused on smaller, more personalised smuggling cases such as the Bali Nine, maritime drug smuggling often allows criminal groups to move illicit drugs and substances into Australia at a much greater scale. This has happened through a variety of ways, including via cargo ship, yacht, and fishing vessels. Key departure locations for drugs aimed to be smuggled into Australia include China, India, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, with much of the drugs trafficked via countries and territories in the South Pacific, in close proximity to Australia.UNODC. 2018. “World Drug Report 2018 Booklet 3: Analysis of Drug Markets” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, pp. 33.
The key drugs trafficked to Australia by sea are methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin. Key groups involved in such operations include outlaw motorcycle gangs, Mexican drug cartels, and Asian crime syndicates. Parties that attempt to combat maritime drug smuggling into Australia include the Australian Government, Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police, Royal Australian Navy, and state police with responses including transnational cooperation, surveillance, maritime patrols, and seizures. Maritime drug smuggling into Australia is still very much a contemporary issue, with ongoing efforts in this area.
Background The key drugs trafficked into Australia by sea are methamphetamine (and its precursors), most commonly known as ice, as well as cocaine, and heroin. Groups which participate in this practice include Australian outlaw biker gangs, Mexican drug cartels, Asian drug syndicates, and those operating in smaller crime rings. Key groups involved in anti-drug smuggling measures in Australia include the Australian Government, Australian Border Force, Australian Federal Police, State Police Forces, and the Royal Australian Navy.
Australia is seen as an attractive target for criminal organisations involved in maritime drug trafficking due to the high price of drugs in Australia, and high demand for drugs in Australia. A kilogram of methamphetamine in Australia is priced at roughly 80 times the price of its cost in China.Ryan, Nigel. 2017. “Ice dragon: a proposal to target the supply of methamphetamine from China to Australia” Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, pp. 2. A kilogram of cocaine in Sydney would yield roughly $250,000 Australian Dollars, whereas it would cost $16,000 in Brownsville, Texas. Based on information gained from key seizures, some key methods of drug smugglers into Australia include doing so through fishing boats, yachts and large container ships. The final method is one of key concern, as a container ship creates the potential to smuggle large quantities of drugs, with container inspecting capabilities remaining limited.
Drug types Methamphetamine With heroin in Australia becoming less accessible, methamphetamines have risen in popularity and usage within Australia, with an overrepresentation of users in proportion to the population when compared to other nations.Ryan, Nigel. 2017. “Ice dragon: a proposal to target the supply of methamphetamine from China to Australia” Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies pp. 1 As a result, organised crime syndicates have been targeting Australia due to the demand and profits the trafficking of methamphetamine to Australia would yield, with the price of a kilogram of methamphetamine in Australia being roughly 80 times higher than the price in China. 200,000 Australians reported using the drug in 2013, and 60 times as much methamphetamine being seized at the Australian border in 2014 when compared to statistics dating to 2010.
Over 3 tonnes of methamphetamine precursor drugs (mostly manufactured in China and India) were seized between 2012 and 2014. However, despite this increased number of seizures, domestic production of methamphetamine has not decreased, which is a cause of concern. This can be demonstrated by higher numbers of clandestine laboratories being detected in 2014 (744) when compared to 2005 (381).Ryan, Nigel. 2017. “Ice dragon: a proposal to target the supply of methamphetamine from China to Australia” Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, pp. 3
Due to its profitability, many transnational crime groups have begun to focus on methamphetamine trafficking in Australia, with over 60% of high risk criminal targets on the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission National Targeting List being involved in the trade, with 45% of this being outlaw motorcycle gangs, who have been known to also partner with other transnational crime groups including Mexican drug cartels, who have in turn been known to deal with not only outlaw motorcycle gangs, but Lebanese, Asian and Albanian groups within Australia. While Australia’s methamphetamine market was traditionally dominated by outlaw motorcycle gangs, the current picture sees increased interaction between these groups and Chinese organised crime groups, with 70% of methamphetamine detections between 2011 and 2016 coming from China.Ryan, Nigel. 2017. “Ice dragon: a proposal to target the supply of methamphetamine from China to Australia” Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers, Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, pp. 4.
The increased targeting of Australia as a destination for groups involved in the trafficking of methamphetamines has also led to more actions by groups such as the Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police. One example is the large, complex bust in the remote Geraldton, Western Australia, where 1.2 tonnes of the drug with a value of $1.04 billion Australian dollars were seized, just a year after the seizure of 182 kilograms of methamphetamines at the same port. While the drugs were destined for the East Coast of Australia, Geraldton seemed to have been selected as initial destination due to its isolation, with only a small population of seasonal fishermen.
A more recent notable example is a drug bust of January 2019, where 1,728 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of A$1.29 billion destined for Australia hidden inside loudspeakers were seized at the Port of Los Angeles-Port of Long Beach, This bust also revealed new ties between Australian biker gangs and Mexican drug cartels which further confirmed the belief that Mexican cartels were actively targeting Australia.
Cocaine Cocaine in Australia is another drug that is increasing in popularity amongst drug users in Australia, with sharply increasing cocaine seizures in Australia. The majority of the cocaine originates in South and Central America, and much of this is smuggled to Australia via island states in the South Pacific, where cocaine-trafficking cartels have set up base in order to import cocaine into Australia. There is a trend where this cocaine is smuggled aboard yachts travelling to and from Australia and South Pacific states/territories such as Vanuatu, Tahiti, and New Caledonia. Seven hundred kilograms of cocaine smuggled on a yacht was seized by Australian Federal Police in 2011, and another 750 kilograms were seized in 2013. However, cocaine is also smuggled into Australia through freight, the postal system and through couriers. With record prices in Australia, it is self explanatory that groups such as Mexican cartels are targeting Australia. While a kilogram of cocaine sold in the US still represents a profit for the cartel, there is a significant mark-up for that same kilogram in Australia, with a kilogram being worth $16,000 in Brownsville, Texas, and $250,000 in Sydney.
There have been several notable maritime cocaine busts in Australia in recent years. In 2017, 700 kilograms of cocaine moved from Tahiti to the East Coast of Australia in a yacht were seized after a multi-agency investigation involving the Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police Force.Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. 2017. “Alleged drug smuggling syndicate dismantled after cocaine-filled yacht intercepted in multi-agency investigation” Joint Media Releases, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, 16 November. 2017
Heroin Heroin use has a rich history in Australia, with opiates being used extensively in the 19th century, eventually leading to prohibition in the mid 1950s. However, the heroin market grew after the Vietnam War and led to large amounts of heroin users and a rise in overdose deaths by the 1980s and 1990s.Gibson, Amy, Louisa Degenhardt, Libby Topp, Carolyn Day, Wayne Hall, Paul Dietze & Rebecca McKetin. 2003. “Global and Australian Heroin Markets” National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, page viii Although planes were used previously, from the 1990s, heroin traffickers began to utilise modified steel-hulled vessels in order to supply the drug to Australia.Gibson, Amy, Louisa Degenhardt, Libby Topp, Carolyn Day, Wayne Hall, Paul Dietze & Rebecca McKetin. 2003. “Global and Australian Heroin Markets” National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, page 24
Much of the heroin being consumed between 2006 and 2016 has originated in the Golden Triangle consisting of Myanmar and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the Golden Crescent encompassing Pakistan and Afghanistan.UNODC. 2016. “Transnational Organized Crime in the Pacific: A Threat Assessment” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, pp 22 Even though heroin use in Australia is not at levels previously seen, the weight of heroin detections did increase from 256.1 kilograms to 513.8 kilograms between 2012 and 2013. The vulnerability of the South Pacific island territories and states are demonstrated further when examining maritime heroin trafficking to Australia with much of these passing through pacific island states and territories including Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.UNODC. 2016. “Transnational Organized Crime in the Pacific: A Threat Assessment” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, pp. 6. Organised crime groups in the Greater Mekong Subregion in Southeast Asia, a long-associated area to heroin production, have begun to intensify production and trafficking of methamphetamines, with opium and heroin production in the region declining in 2018.UNODC. 2018. “’Alarming Levels’ of methamphetamine trafficking in Asia’s Mekong, UN warns” UNODC, 22 May 2018
Heroin trafficking in Australia also had a unique case in the form of the Pong Su incident in 2003, which involved not a criminal syndicate or syndicates, but likely a state, when a North Korea cargo ship was suspected of smuggling 125 kilograms of heroin into Australia,BBC News. 2004. “N Korea ‘trafficking drugs’ BBC News, 2 March 2004 leading to the US Government declaring that it is of high probability that North Korea are engaging in state-sponsored drug trafficking.
Key routes As established previously, while the drugs being trafficked into Australia do not tend to originate in the South Pacific, much of the drugs do in fact pass through South Pacific states and territories, of which key origin points are South America and Asia.UNODC. 2016. “Transnational Organized Crime in the Pacific: A Threat Assessment” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, pp 17. For cocaine, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that the most important departure countries for Australia-bound cocaine are the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil.UNODC. 2018. “World Drug Report 2018 Booklet 3: Analysis of Drug Markets” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, pp 33.