CANBERRA: International drug syndicates using the postal system to import ice are being targeted by a new police taskforce in the latest move to combat the use of the drug in Victoria.
The joint taskforce known as Icarus has been underway since December and combines investigators from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Victoria Police and Customs. Taskforce Icarus has intercepted a total of 206 kilograms worth of the drug in its first three months, with a street value of $42 million.
The international syndicates are known to use a scattergun approach, sending multiple consignments of ice through the post with the expectation that some will be intercepted by the authorities. They rely on the majority of the drugs getting past screening, where they are collected by middlemen in Australia.
Figures provided to the ABC by the Federal Police show 77 seizures have been made by Taskforce Icarus investigators with an average weight of 400 grams per consignment.
Australian Crime Commission figures show that in the last financial year, more than 75 per cent of amphetamines intercepted by authorities had been sent via international mail. A number of international syndicates have been identified as a result of the work of Taskforce Icarus.
A spokesperson for the AFP said the taskforce aimed to better understand the way drug syndicates used their international networks. “Up until now there has been limited intelligence and analysis conducted on the convergence identified with drugs and illicit goods detected in the international mail system,” the spokesperson said. China is known to be a major production hub for the drug, however it is not known how much of the drugs seized by the task force originated there.
The most recent illicit drug report released by the Australian Crime Commission noted that a total of 778 kilograms of amphetamines, including ice, had been intercepted on its way from China in 2013-14. News of the seizures comes as the Victorian town of Mildura gets ready to host the Prime Minister’s National Ice Taskforce on Wednesday.
