ABF watching 900 Australians, as Operation Jardena busts drug importation

Border Force has a secret list of more than 900 Australians, who are being watched, as it continues to stop drug importation. See the busts so far.

More than 900 Australians are being monitored by authorities who believe they are using their legitimate jobs to help organised crime gangs import drugs and other illegal goods.

News Corp can reveal the size of the watch list for Operation Jardena – the Australian Border Force’s effort to identify and combat trusted insiders in the supply chain – has ballooned from more than 500 people early last year.

The large majority of those on Jardena’s radar do not have criminal records.

But they are recruited by criminal syndicates because they hold jobs that put them in a position to help illicit shipments enter Australia by air or sea.

Border Force inspector Vanessa Ruff, who is the agency’s first US-based officer, said: “Transnational serious organised crime will always have someone in the supply chain, because if you’re importing goods then it’s crossing the border.”

Australian Border Force inspector Vanessa Ruff explains how she is stopping the supply chain of illicit drugs. Picture: Coleman-Rayner

“The supply chain is everything from the guy driving the forklift in the warehouse to the pilot of an aircraft or the captain of a vessel, and everything in between like freight forwarders and customs brokers,” she said.

Jardena was implemented in November 2021 after Operation Ironside – in which authorities surveilled organised crime gangs through the AN0M app the crooks thought was encrypted – highlighted the widespread use of trusted insiders to smuggle drugs.

Ms Ruff, who is based in Los Angeles as a supply chain liaison officer for Jardena, said the operation was designed to improve Border Force’s cooperation with its law enforcement partners and tackle the problem.

“It was established to boost the supply chain capability and better coordinate efforts to counter criminal infiltration in the supply chain,” she said.

OPERATION JARDENA BUSTS SO FAR

– Almost 100 tonnes of cocaine was seized in Operation Tin Can, a transnational joint probe with the World Customs Organization that made 43 arrests across 58 countries

A major joint operation called Operation Tin Can organised by the Australian Border Force, World Customs Organization (WCO) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) cracked down on insider threats in the maritime supply chain. Picture: ABF

– Pro surfer Evan Faulks and his partner Ariane Rose Munch who were allegedly linked to Sydney surf gang the Bra Boys were charged over the attempted import of six kilograms of cocaine and six kilograms of meth from the US. No pleas have been entered.

Evan Faulks allegedly dealt in $839,050.50 in proceeds of crime with the intention of concealing it through a Tabcorp (TAB) betting account in his own name. Picture: Red Bull/Facebook

Evan Faulks was arrested with his co-accused Ariane Munch. Picture: Red Bull/Facebook

– Officers discovered 15 kilograms of cocaine in a shipping container at Bell Bay in Tasmania after it arrived from overseas via Sydney

$6m seizure of cocaine at Bell Bay. Picture: Tasmania Police.

– Two people were charged and almost $1m worth of beauty products and electronic goods were seized in an alleged trans-Tasman duty free goods scam.

WHAT AUSTRALIA CAN LEARN FROM US

It comes as Ms Ruff also said Australia should copy the North American practice of testing drugs in air cargo facilities to accelerate trafficking investigations.

She said American and Canadian authorities stationed chemists onsite at cargo handling centres to immediately scrutinise suspect shipments.

“They have labs in their air cargo facilities where they test straight away,” she said.

But in Australia, Border Force and the Australian Federal Police have to rely on sending suspected drug packages to the Australian Forensic Drug Laboratory at the National Measurement Institute to confirm what illicit substances have arrived.

Homeland Security are photographed at the San Pedro Port in California opening freight to check for drugs.

According to the institute, it takes one to five days to turn around the urgent identification of a common illicit drug, while a routine identification and quantification takes three weeks.

Ms Ruff said mirroring the North American approach would make a major difference in the battle to stop illicit drugs at the border in Australia.

“It’s changed the way the Canadians do air cargo. Because they’re detecting things so quickly, they’ve got something like 14 days before the crooks change their concealment methodology,” she said.

“They know for 14 days to target what they’ve found, and then it changes because the crooks realise it’s been found, but that’s an amazing help.”

Send your story tips to [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Originally published as ABF watching 900 Australians, as Operation Jardena busts drug importation