The Daily Telegraph editorial: Foreign criminals are increasingly snubbing our laws
A NUMBER of small, unpopulated Caribbean islands bear evidence to this day of just how powerful the drug syndicates run during the 1970s and 1980s by the likes of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his lawless kind were.
Opinion
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VISITORS to any number of small, unpopulated Caribbean islands will discover many delights, including pristine waters, glistening white sands and myriad diving opportunities.
But some of those islands bear evidence to this day of just how powerful were the drug syndicates run during the 1970s and 1980s by the likes of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his lawless kind.
Abandoned and rotting mansions stand as testimony to the former wealth of the cocaine barons. Sunken aircraft, used for large-scale drug smuggling before being wheeled into the ocean to prevent their capture as evidence, reveal the financial power enjoyed by the various cartel leaders.
These islands are reminders of a time when the cocaine trade had become so lucrative that the cartels tempered their rivalries.
Although hostilities were always present, the drug lords had realised there were sufficient billions in the illicit drug for everyone to share.
Something similar, albeit on a thankfully smaller scale, is now happening in NSW.
As The Daily Telegraph reveals, major foreign crime syndicates operating within our state are raking in so much money that they’re putting aside feuds.
Instead of continuing their vicious turf wars, they are forming alliances and cashing in. According to former NSW Police Force deputy commissioner Nick Kaldas, it is “now undeniable that Australia is on the radar and is a desirable location for a diverse range of criminal groupings from Mexicans and South American cartels to Russians”.
That, sadly, is only part of the bad news. The worst of it is that these criminal enterprises are completely unconcerned about any Australian authorities.
“It is also perfectly clear now that crime groups do not recognise, nor are they daunted by borders or law enforcement,” Kaldas, now with the UN following 35 years of service for NSW Police, said. “Put simply, many do not fear Australian police or many other law enforcement agencies.”
Pablo Escobar, worth more than $US30 billion at his criminal peak, was eventually gunned down by Colombian police in 1993.
The chase that preceded his death may have been the first time Escobar ever truly felt he was beaten.
A 1977 police mugshot shows him smiling contentedly. The foreign criminals operating in NSW and Australia are likely feeling just as secure.
“We need to get back to a place where police are feared by criminal gangs,” Kaldas points out. The former deputy commissioner nails it.
ZHOE WALKS TALL ON CATWALK
DIVERSITY in Australia is not a shallow concept, nor is it something praised in theory but not upheld in practice.
Rather, diversity is a very real and very potent element of our broader Australian culture, and it is celebrated every day in the most Australian way — by people simply getting along, working together and building our future.
This year’s Fashion Week will showcase that diversity.
“No matter the colour of your skin, shape of your body or even how tall you are, each woman is unique and beautiful,” indigenous model Zhoe Trotter told The Daily Telegraph. Walk tall, Zhoe.
DECLINING LITERACY TARGETED
STUDENTS benefit from individual attention. This is one of the reasons why private tutors now play such a prominent role.
Malcolm Turnbull’s government will today announce an intensification of individualised attention within the classroom, as part of a strategy to address literacy standards that are falling.
The move follows a review of our education standards. “All of the data and evidence is showing us that Australian students’ performance was at best stagnating and potentially declining,”
Education Minister Simon Birmingham explained. To counter that decline, the revamped curriculum will feature what the minister calls “individualised work patterns”, along with the encouragement of greater teacher flexibility.
Good thinking. A one-size-fits-all educational approach may have worked in the past, but the sheer diversity of modern workforces obviously requires a more multifaceted approach. This is a clever move.