‘A question for the federal government’: Yasmin Catley points the finger at ABF

Police Minister Yasmin Catley has taken an extraordinary swipe at Australian Border Force, blaming it for the huge prevalence of cocaine in Sydney.

The tonnes of cocaine flooding into NSW have been blamed on Australian Border Force, in an extraordinary swipe by the NSW Police Minister towards her federal counterparts.

The attack came after a NSW Police operation smashed Sydney’s biggest cocaine syndicate, The Commission, after it sold a staggering 1.2 tonnes of the drug over four months.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley laid blame for the prevalence of the drug on Sydney streets on the Australian Border Force, which she said had seen the tonnes of cocaine come through our borders.

When asked on Thursday if there was more that governments could do to stem the demand for the party drug, Ms Catley said it was the responsibility of the federal government.

Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism, Yasmin Catley said she would not cop any criticism of the NSW Police. Picture: Damian Shaw

“Our police have just broken a crime gang and confiscated an enormous amount of drugs, our borders are the problem with that so that’s probably a question for the Federal government,” she said.

“It (cocaine) is certainly coming in and they’re coming in through our borders.

“If drugs are coming through our borders, then that is obviously a Federal issue.

“The NSW Police have just pulled off one of the biggest raids and I’m not going to criticise them … and I won’t cop criticism of them either.”

Ms Catley said she had raised her concerns about the amounts of cocaine coming into the state with her Federal counterpart at the Ministerial council meeting.

The Minister’s comments highlight a tension between NSW Police and the ABF. This comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed earlier this month the ABF had allowed a container ship carrying more than two tonnes of illegal tobacco worth up to $300 million to disappear into international waters after the NSW Police requested to seize its cargo.

ABF claimed they could not seize the tobacco because no crime could be proven and that the ship was free to continue sailing.

Ms Catley also said on Thursday that any conversations about stemming Sydney’s insatiable desire for cocaine should be discussed at the upcoming Drug Summit in October.

NSW Police seized evidence from an alleged drug trafficking ring dubbed ‘The Commission this week. Picture: AFP/NSW Police

Earlier on Thursday Police Commissioner Karen Webb said more work needed to be done across the government to tackle the demand for the drug in the city.

“The market is driven by a demand and that concerns me and what we need to have a conversation about is how do we affect demand,” she said.

“We’re very concerned about the supply and health issues around consumption should be dealt with – it’s obviously addictive.”

Ms Webb said strategies to combat the demand for black market cocaine, including decriminalisation of the drug should be discussed at the Drug summit

“I haven’t seen the terms of reference for the drug summit but I imagine that will be part of the discussion,” she said.