Drug mules caught in Australia attempting to smuggle clothes infused with ice past border controls
A number of recent busts in Melbourne and interstate has indicated syndicates are turning to a risky method as a way to get methamphetamine past border controls.
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Drug mules are increasingly being used to bring clothing impregnated with ice into Australia for transnational drug gangs.
A number of recent busts in Melbourne and interstate has indicated syndicates are turning to the method as a way to get methamphetamine past border controls.
Clothes are soaked in a meth solution by overseas criminals then brought into Australia by couriers on passenger flights or through cargo.
The drug is then extracted from the fabric using a chemical process.
The method can be highly lucrative for syndicate bosses but a flurry of recent busts has left those allegedly doing the mule-work exposed to big prison sentences.
In the most recent interception, Australian Federal Police officers charged a 20-year-old woman from Portugal on January 18 after she jetted into Melbourne on a flight from the United States.
Australian Border Force members searched her luggage on arrival and found 16kg of clothing impregnated with methamphetamine, which had been stored inside vacuum-sealed bags.
The Portuguese woman was charged with importing and possessing a marketable quantity of meth and faces a jail term of up to 25 years.
In October, the AFP charged a United States woman who was arrested after flying into Sydney International Airport.
She was allegedly carrying clothing impregnated with 12kg of methamphetamine worth millions of dollars.
In November, a man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in the United States before boarding a plane to Sydney.
He allegedly had a cow onesie in his baggage which had been soaked in methamphetamine.
A 25-year-old man was sentenced by a Perth court in November for employing the method.
He and another man who has also been jailed had smuggled in meth worth $6 million in impregnated stockings which arrived in an air cargo consignment from Pakistan.
The amount in the stockings was the equivalent of 68,000 street level deals.
Australian Border Force acting Commander Allister Keel said organised crime was constantly evolving and developing new ways to amass profits.
Cdr Keel said, despite the risk of life prison sentences, criminals continued to try to get away with running drugs through Australian airports.
Cdr Keel said ABF officers’ had skills and technology and intelligence-sharing with other agencies meant they had the capability to find such players.
“The ABF is highly vigilant of any such attempt to breach our borders, including drug traffickers’ use of impregnated goods,” he said.
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Originally published as Drug mules caught in Australia attempting to smuggle clothes infused with ice past border controls
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