CANBERRA: Authorities made more than 110,000 drug arrests in the 2013-14 financial year and seized 27 tonnes of illicit substances
Australian federal police display a haul of heroin and ice.
More drugs have been seized than at any other time in Australia and authorities make a narcotics-related arrest an average of once every five minutes, a new report by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) has said.
The illicit drug report pulls together data from state and territory police units, as well as the Australian federal police (AFP) and the Customs and Border Protection Service.
It finds authorities made more than 110,000 drug arrests in the 2013-14 financial year and seized a record 27 tonnes of illicit substances.
“Alarmingly, that is one arrest every five minutes and one seizure every six minutes,” justice minister Michael Keenan said.
“There is no doubt that we are disrupting more criminals and detecting more illicit drugs than ever before but the illicit drug market still remains the principal source of profits for organised crime in Australia and continues to be a key focus for all of our law enforcement agencies.”
Dawson noted a “market shift” in the demand for heroin, noting it is “not as high as it has been in previous years”.
Seizures in the “other drug” category increased by 600%, due in large part to a 10-tonne haul of the chemical benzaldehyde, which is used to make methamphetamine.
“That ten-tonne seizure … could have translated and been manufactured into 4.5 tonnes of methamphetamine. That equates to 45 million street deals, a street value of $3.6bn. So it was a very successful operation for Victoria police,” ACC chief executive Chris Dawson said.
The ACC said ice, or crystal methamphetamine, poses the greatest risk to society. “The use of ice has doubled in a three-year period,” Dawson said.
Community consultations on the government’s national ice task force, announced in April, began earlier this week.
The report comes as the AFP announced it had charged a 66-year old Hong Kong man who allegedly tried to smuggle 150 kgs of crystal methamphetamine into the country.
“On 29 April, customs officers at our container examination facility at Port Botany examined a consignment that originated out of Hong Kong. That consignment was declared as chemicals,” New South Wale regional commander for Customs and Border Protection services, Tim Fitzgerald, said.
“An image x-ray expert identified anomalies within the consignment. As a result of that, the consignment was examined by our customs officers and the detection was made of 150 kgs of ice,” Fitzgerald said.
If convicted the man faces life in prison or a fine of $1.25m for the alleged importation of the drugs.
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