How trusted insiders and organised crime gangs bring drugs to Australia through sneaky ‘rips’

This is how organised crime gangs are flooding the world with illicit drugs through their networks of sleeper agents and trusted insiders.

It’s the low-risk, high-reward smuggling trick that authorities are desperately trying to stop.

Moving drugs overseas in shipping containers used to require crafty packing methods to disguise the shipment, and often a rogue customs officer to wave it through.

But organised crime gangs are now relying on simple “rips”.

“Someone just opens a container and throws a duffel bag in,” Australian Border Force inspector Vanessa Ruff said.

“They don’t care who the importer is.”

The scheme relies on trusted insiders in the supply chain – like a worker on the docks or in a warehouse, or a truck driver transporting cargo – doing the dirty work within seconds for trafficking syndicates.

“They’re so organised that they take a photo of the container and then wherever it’s going, they’ve got someone to pull it off,” Ms Ruff said.

Operation Jardena Inspector Vanessa Ruff says law enforcement has eyes everywhere now they are working together in Los Angeles to stop drug shipments in their tracks. Picture: Coleman-Rayner

Fake seals are made so that once drugs are dropped into a container, it can be closed up without raising suspicions, before someone at the receiving end cuts it off and collects the shipment.

“We’re none the wiser, so that’s our big problem at the moment,” Ms Ruff said.

“The world has been flooded with rips.”

Watch how ‘a rip’ works in the video above.

The method was a key focus of Operation Tin Can – a transnational operation late last year that made more than 100 drug seizures – which highlighted the importance of Border Force’s Operation Jardena crackdown on trusted insiders.

Australian Border Force Commander Bjorn Roberts. Picture: Ian Currie

Items being inspected at a private warehouse at San Pedro Port. Picture: Coleman-Rayner

Operation Jardena commander Bjorn Roberts said rips were now the most common drug concealment method, as he vowed to “make the border a hostile environment for criminals trying to import illicit drugs”.

“The ABF is committed to strengthening our supply chains to combat criminal infiltration and deliver a robust network that supports the rapid movement of legitimate trade,” he said.

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Originally published as How trusted insiders and organised crime gangs bring drugs to Australia through sneaky ‘rips’