Federal Budget 2022: AFP launches taskforce to tackle crime in SA
The AFP is launching a specialist taskforce in Adelaide that will take on the criminal underworld, following the success of the global AN0M sting.
Federal Budget
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The fight against organised crime will be turbocharged with a $170m funding package for the Australian Federal Police to take on the bikies, mafia gangs, Triads and other criminal cartels smuggling drugs and weapons into Australia.
A year after the success of the AFP’s global sting using the encrypted app AN0M, which resulted in more than 350 people being arrested in Australia, the AFP will be funded to set up specialised strike teams to target transnational and serious organised crime groups.
The money will supercharge law enforcement’s ability to seize assets from criminals, including their houses, cars, bank accounts and cryptocurrency.
Another $30m will be spent hunting down and stripping assets from criminals, and a new arm of the AFP’s criminal asset confiscation taskforce will be established in Adelaide, after the AN0M take-down revealed the true extent of mafia and bikie drug-running, violence and money-laundering in South Australia.
An extra 200 people will be employed by the AFP.
Police are continuing to work their way through 25 million messages intercepted through the AN0M app, and they expect charges to continue to be laid for months.
The AFP says 70 per cent of Australia’s serious organised crime targets were based overseas or had strong overseas connections.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the funding would also boost the numbers of Australian Border Force officers at seaports, airports and warehouses, to make smuggling of illicit goods and drugs more difficult.
As well, an additional $35m would be spent over two years to establish a single government issuing authority for maritime and aviation security identification cards, which give holders unescorted access to secure areas of airports and seaports.
The government has long been concerned that proper vetting was not occurring of people such as baggage handlers and other “trusted insiders’’ who were suspected of facilitating the importation of drugs and weapons.
Ms Andrews said the AFP would establish dedicated TSOC strike teams, comprising police investigators and intelligence specialists, to go after drug smugglers, weapons smugglers and money-launderers.
“This crucial investment will allow the AFP to supercharge its specialist capabilities to keep pace with the growing threat of outlaw motorcycle gangs, organised crime, cartels and other crime groups,’’ she said.
Other funding commitments in the budget include:
• $50m over two years to help marginalised young people develop life skills, including through educational and vocational training, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and to promote inclusion and community resilience.
• $66.9m to continue to monitor convicted high-risk terrorism offenders who have been released from jail into the community.
• $19.8m to create a national terrorist register.
• $116.8m for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to identify and disrupt serious criminal activity.
• $61.7m over four years for deradicalisation programs for violent extremists.
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