Drug Enforcement Administration agents sent back to America after complaint

Two agents from the American Drug Enforcement Administration have been told to return home after the AFP complained to US ambassador Caroline Kennedy about their methods of investigating a huge drug importation.

Two American agents have been sent home.

EXCLUSIVE: Two Sydney-based agents from the American Drug Enforcement Administration are being sent home after the Australian Federal Police complained to US ambassador Caroline Kennedy about methods of investigating a massive drug importation.

The DEA agents have not been accused of wrongdoing but the AFP fears their investigation techniques may have impacted on operations, particularly involving a major cocaine shipment destined for Western Australia and NSW.

The complaint comes amid a wider dispute over policing methods in which some state police forces believe the AFP are more interested in seizing and destroying drugs than investigating the syndicates behind them.

Some NSW police have gone as far as to say this could have led to criminal groups wrongly thinking a missing consignment of drugs had been stolen which sparked the Alameddine-Hamzy war leading to multiple gangland hits and kidnappings.

“There are some who believe the feds seized the drugs and one group thought someone had stolen it and that set things off,” one NSW officer said.

Reece Kershaw from the AFP. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw made a complaint to the US Embassy saying his officers were having difficulties in working with the two DEA officers.

“The AFP does not comment on current operational matters. It is imperative international agencies that operate in Australia adhere to Australian laws and respect Australia’s sovereignty,’’ the AFP said in a statement.

A number of police officers in NSW and interstate believe the controversy was sparked by the DEA’s general approach of dealing directly with the state crime bodies and bypassing the federal police.

“The DEA has done nothing wrong and all this does is make catching international drug dealers harder,” one interstate officer said.

United States Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy. Picture: Allison Shelley

“More often than not state police have more patience and are in a better position to conduct long investigations which get more of the players after the drugs have arrived.

“Truth be known, the DEA and the state cops have a similar view of thinking the long game where they substitute the drugs and try to follow it.

“Federal police are very quick to just seize the drugs. Problem with that is the syndicate just get another consignment in the works … losing a shipment means nothing to them because they are making that much money,” he said.

There are suggestions the AFP has been angered by several instances where the DEA passed on information to the state police and not federal police.

The agents have been sent home over how they investigated a drug importation.

Investigators from the DEA’s internal affairs unit have been in Australia recently looking into the complaint by the AFP. The US Embassy said it would not comment but it is believed the officers have been instructed to go home.

NSW Police said it was not involved and would not comment.

The complaint against the highly respected DEA has shocked many police around the country.

The AFP were instrumental in working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Operation Ironside which has been referred to as the “crime sting of the century”.

Criminals around the world were duped into using an encrypted device called ANOM which they believed allowed them to carry out their illegal activities without being detected by law enforcement when in fact the FBI, the AFP and other agencies around the world were collecting the messages in real time.

Some of the world’s leading drug cartels, including Australian syndicates, have been dismantled with intelligence gathered by AFP from Operation Ironside.

Information gleaned from the ANOM devices prevented a number of murders and kidnappings throughout Australia, according to police.