News Corp Australia. An investigation by the Australian Federal Police began when border guards detained a man transporting heroin. Singapore on Thursday executed two men for drug trafficking, ignoring pleas for mercy from human rights campaigners who fear "a new wave" of hangings in the Asian city state notorious . A recent drug arrest in Australia has links to South Africa. Proponents of the use of threshold quantities argue that they are the optimal means to guarantee that drug offenders receive the sanction that they deserve (MCCOC 1998b; Sentencing Council 2011). By contrast, other states show that users are at risk of exceeding the thresholds across multiple drug types. How common is illicit drug use? A Gold Coast man charged with trafficking several drugs - including cocaine and MDMA - as part of an organised crime network has fronted court for the first time. Australia falls into this latter, minority category. These surveys provide data on patterns of drug use (under both typical and heavy use sessions), purchasing behaviour, typical street prices and a number of other user and market characteristics. Drug trafficking is: A federal crime (the laws are decided by Congress and apply to the entire nation) A felony crime (involves very serious penalties or prison time) Not the same as "drug possession". The detainee was interrogated, and his phone was examined to find his accomplices. A massive leak of classified government documents has exposed the identities and methods of secret agents working to stop . Australia: Possession of drugs & drug supply charges - NSW - Mondaq The dark web drug market has also been . 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. The AFP is working with our partners in impacted regions to mitigate any potential threats to the safety of people, or ongoing investigations.. Legal thresholds are significant yet controversial tools in the sentencing of drug offenders (Hughes 2010a, 2003). As increasing amounts of drugs are trafficked, this creates more illicit funds which criminals will . The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and not necessarily those of the Commonwealth. Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable health burden in Australia. The documents chart a steady flow of cocaine and other drugs from Colombian cartels and organised crime groups in Europe, Asia and the Pacific targeting Australian ports and airports, via intermediaries in places such as Africa, Hong Kong and Fiji. 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. 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). Police Detective . As noted above, Australia is in the minority of countries that specify quantities for distinguishing between drug offences with different penalty scales. Findings from the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS). The AFP with drugs seized from a clandestine laboratory in July 2022.Credit: In a separate hack, the group published emails from Chiles military forces, resulting in the head of the joint chiefs of staff there, General Guillermo Paiva, resigning on September 23. Information that could affect ongoing police operations or court cases, disclose novel police methods or put people in danger is not being published. Australian threshold quantities for 'drug trafficking': Are they It is an offence in the ACT to traffic in a controlled drug. This increases the likelihood that existing thresholds will have unintended and undesirable policy outcomes. This indicates that Australian drug users are unlikely to exceed the trafficable threshold under normal circumstances, but that when using or purchasing their highest doses, many do exceed the thresholds. Accordingly, training enables the frontier guards to prepare for complex operations. In addition, the problem is the speedy adoption of traders to the current conditions. A 2018 Australian Federal Police (AFP) document reviewed by Reuters outlining the top . 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. (2021). Thus, they initiated the investigation of the Victorian Joint Task Force on Organized Crime. "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. Between April 12 and 17 2019, DEAs have continued to combat transnational drug . 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. Thus, this strategy is successful because it interacts with the other countries authorities, which increases the chances of stopping the large-scale drug business. 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 . There has been an increasing push for all states and territories to adopt the proposed threshold quantities (AGD 2011; NDS 2007). 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). A massive leak of classified government documents has exposed the identities and methods of secret agents working to stop major drug importations to Australia. The group is allegedly linked to a Queensland accounting firm that caters to Spanish speakers, and an Australian man with links to the Bandidos, Mongols and Lone Wolf Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. 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. In fact, prescription drugs are some of the pricier drugs out there. Resource Type: DPMP Bulletins, Working papers/discussion papers. Drug Trafficking - Definition, Examples, Cases, Processes Drug Trafficking, Selling and Cultivation | Commonwealth Director of 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." It is clear that the risks of exceeding the thresholds vary considerably across drug types. Trafficking in a controlled drug is divided into offences based on the quantity of the drug trafficked. Instead, at both the time of conviction and the year leading to the conviction, they were users/possessors only. To date, only one state, South Australia, has enacted such changes. To do this, they demand a clear knowledge of the states carrier policy that includes aquatic ports, platforms, ways, railway routes, and terminals. StudyCorgi. Indeed, with one exception, the maximum quantities reported by cannabis users were 3.535 times under the threshold. A report last year by the Lowy Institute found that, in the Pacific Islands, "drug trafficking has evolved significantly with the rise of local actors in transnational criminal networks". At the same time, in order to achieve the plan, it is essential to perform such actions as constant border patrol, an inspection of vehicles entering the territory of Australia, and individuals. Walsh C 2008. Money Laundering | Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Specific goals of relevance for this paper were to: The method replicated the approach of Hughes and Ritter (in press). Government agencies in different states often disagree on whether to view illicit drugs as a health or criminal problem, and it is evidenced by different views on law enforcement and penalties imposed on drug offenders. Operation Shenzi was a joint Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Western Australia Police Force investigation carried out in 2016, which culminated in the arrest of 14 people who were either crew members of the mother ship Mega Profit . In another AFP operation, their strategy is to disrupt the onshore syndicate of Colombian-born student visa holders, connected through common education agents and agencies, importing cocaine into South East Queensland via the air cargo stream, an emailed AFP report said. In this study, the authors use data on patterns of drug user consumption and purchasing to evaluate Australian legal threshold quantities to see whether Australian drug users are at risk of exceeding the thresholds for personal use alone. 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. That said, the maximum quantity consumed or purchased for personal use alone exceeded the trafficable quantity for most drug types. What Does Drug Trafficking Mean In NSW and what is the penalty for drug trafficking in Australia? A 24-year-old Sydney man has been jailed for nine years and four months after he posed as a teen to exploit and extort explicit images from children online. . Two additional solutions are suggested. 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. However, the cooperation of frontier guards with the customs service and other state organizations represents an essential role in successfully implementing the preventive method. The broader project examined this issue in two different wayswhether the thresholds are designed to filter traffickers from users and whether they enable appropriate sanctioning of traffickers of different controlled drugs. 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, O'Bryan and Marks JJ, 576). Drugs and the Law | Australian Police Some of the AFPs operations in the leak led to arrests in Australia and overseas, apparently causing significant disruption to drug supply chains. What is clear from this analysis is that, even if the system helps to convict and sanction drug traffickers, the current legal threshold system is placing Australian drug users at risk of unjustified charge or sanction. Most Australian states and territories employ three different thresholdsa trafficable threshold (that distinguishes crimes of low-level trafficking versus possession for personal use), a commercial threshold and a large commercial threshold (Hughes 2010b). The fentanyl . Over the past 50 years, levels of apparent consumption of different alcoholic beverages changed substantially. Nevertheless, in all Australian states and territories, possession of the base-level threshold quantities triggers elevated maximum penalty ranges. Three United Kingdom nationals have been charged after allegedly smuggling 24 kilograms of crystal meth worth more than $28 million into . Drug trafficking: Australia drug cartel investigations revealed in data 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. 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). The surveys also omit users who consume substances less frequently. The logistical elasticity of criminal gangs prevents national authorities from responding quickly to problems and eliminating them. The results indicate that some, but not all users are at risk, with those most likely to exceed current thresholds being consumers of MDMA and residents of New South Wales and South Australia. 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 . . What is also problematic is to grab an entire syndicate of smugglers, not just one member (OReilly et al., 2020). This is particularly true for MDMA and for users in the states of New South Wales and South Australia. Add languages. A joint U.S. and Australian law enforcement operation busted an international drug ring after intercepting 2.4 tonnes of cocaine aboard a vessel off the coast of South America that had been bound . The report says motorcycle gangs are now involved in drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering in the region, using the example of the arrest in Australia of three men associated with an . After reaching Vietnam, part of the drugs headed to sea from Ho Chi Minh City's Cat Lai port, bound for Manila. 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. Data on last purchase amount was extracted by state and drug type, dosage conversions applied, data cross-checked with experts and then estimates compared against the actual threshold quantities. 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). Australian drug trafficking laws: guilty until proven innocent? However, it is also clear that the level of risk can be mitigated by better design. Another name for this crime is drug distribution. Media articles explain the problem of narcotics trafficking across the Australian border. Secret agents targeting drug cartels in Australia exposed in data hack. Yet, in spite of known risks from adopting such thresholds, most notably of unjustified conviction of users as traffickers, the capacity of Australian legal thresholds to deliver proportional sanctioning has been subject to limited research. KATHMANDU, March 4: The Australian Federal Police has arrested two Nepali youths for their involvement in drug trafficking. In 2019, 11.0% of Australians smoked tobacco daily, down from 12.2% in 2016 and 24% in 1991. StudyCorgi. However, drug trafficking examples can also concern prescription drugs that people tend to abuse, like Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone and Vicodin. This view is supported by a US study by Sevigny and Caulkins (2006) which showed that in 1997, 11.9 percent of US federal and 15.6 percent of state inmates convicted of drug trafficking self-reported no trafficking involvement. "This has contributed to rising addiction amongst locals and the emergence of a local drug network.". In so doing, it is feared that thresholds reduce the capacity to sanction drug traffickers on the basis of their intended or actual harm. Disclaimer: Services provided by StudyCorgi are to be used for research purposes only. Whether a drug charge is heard and dealt with in the Local or the District Court, depends on the quantity, according to the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW). This "highway", it said,was servicing a growing demand for illicit drugs in the Pacific Islands. a: Threshold quantities in these jurisdictions are listed per pure gram (shown in brackets). A., Hughes, C. E., Bright, D. A., & Ritter, A. for only $13.00 $11.05/page. 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. Concealment techniques for the drugs often change but the use of clothing items to conceal drugs is a feature of the syndicates methods, the documents reveal. Most notably, Tasmania employs considerably greater threshold quantities for all illicit drugs. In emerging countries, it is easy to cross certain parts of the frontiers unnoticed with illegal substances. Ex-SAPOL Cop Tom Booker Lived Life of Luxury and Snorted $10,000 a Week Hughes, Caitlin|Ritter, Alison|Cowdery, Nicholas|Phillips, Benjamin, The implementation of model schedules for Commonwealth serious drug offences, Data sources on illicit drug use and harm in Australia, Containing ecstasy: Analytical tools for profiling an illegal drug market, Conviction by numbers: Threshold quantities for drug policy, TNI-EMCDDA expert seminar on threshold quantities, Topic overview: Threshold quantities for drug offences, Legislative threshold for drug possession and traffic: An overview of state and territory differences in Australia, The role of the quantity in the prosecution of drug offences (ELDD comparative study), A summary of diversion programs for drug and drug-related offenders in Australia, Serious drug offences (Model Criminal Code), Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy joint communique16 May, Drug offences guideline: Professional consultation, http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/emanuals/CrimChargeBook/default.htm. "The offshore disruption of criminal groups and infiltrating organised crime is a key part of our role and part of the solution.". On the threshold: How relevant should quantity be in determining intent to supply. He has pleaded guilty to 50 offences including drug trafficking and money laundering. Criminals use either legal or unofficial methods to obtain smuggling over countries. Many overseas police agencies are also affected. Australia's illicit drug problem is getting worse | The Strategist 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). A massive leak of classified documents from the Colombian government has exposed the identities and methods of secret agents working to stop international drug cartels from operating in Australia.

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