2024 List: Worst regions for drug trafficking in Victoria and greater Melbourne revealed

Pockets of Victoria have emerged as hot spots for trafficking meth, cocaine, cannabis and more, with some regional centres leapfrogging Melbourne LGAs to top the list. See where the worst spots are here.

The latest crime data has revealed which pockets of Victoria and Greater Melbourne are hot spots for trafficking illicit substances.

Every LGA across the state contributed to the statewide total of 29,939 drug offences recorded in the year to December 2023, according to data published by the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency.

Simply by offences committed, Melbourne’s CBD was unsurprisingly the place where the most drug traffickers were caught by police but the numbers become interesting when compared to the population.

Regional areas shot up the list with Buloke, in the state’s northwest, having a rate of 328.3 drug traffickers per 100,000 population.

Melbourne remained in the top five, with a rate of 188.2, while Greater Shepparton (155.2), Greater Bendigo (149.6) and Glenelg on Victoria’s southwestern border (139.9) rounding it out.

Drug trafficking was fairly evenly spread between Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria, with 53 per cent of dealers being nabbed in the capital’s city and suburbs.

See whether your LGA falls is one of the hot spots.

METHAMPHETAMINES

Most of the drug trafficking charges across the state were for methamphetamines, with 1234 charges laid across Victoria in the year to December 2023.

Greater Bendigo topped the list, with 133 dealers charged in that period, almost one and a half times the number of dealers charged in the City of Melbourne (85).

Greater Shepparton, in the Goulburn Valley, was the third-worst in the state (69) offences, while Casey in Melbourne’s east came in fourth (66) and Brimbank in Melbourne’s west rounded out the top five (52).

COCAINE

When it came to cocaine, the most expensive consumer drug in Australia, Crime Statistics Victoria showed trafficking charges for that drug were higher in the CBD than the rest of the state.

The white powder was far more popular to deal in greater Melbourne than in regional Victoria, with the top 13 LGAs all falling within the city’s limits.

The top 10 regions, all within Melbourne, made up almost 50 per cent of all cocaine offences.

Casey and Port Phillip were in equal second for cocaine trafficking offences (18), with Monash in Melbourne’s east (15) and Whittlesea in the north (14) rounding out the top five.

The regional area with the most cocaine trafficking offences was Greater Geelong with eight arrests.

CANNABIS

Almost 17 per cent of all trafficking offences in Victoria were for cannabis, with the dealers being picked up in Melbourne’s outer regions.

There were almost double as many traffickers picked up in Casey (54), a region that includes Cranbourne, to the second highest area of Brimbank in Melbourne’s west (29).

The CBD came in third at 26 offences, with Melton (25) and Wyndham (23).

In regional Victoria, Greater Geelong topped the list with 14 offences, followed by Mildura and Ballarat at 12.

PRESCRIPTION

Prescription medication trafficking tended to occur in the wealthier suburbs of Victoria, with Port Phillip, Stonnington, Darebin, Moonee Valley and Boroondara all in the top 10 LGAs.

However, prescription medicine only accounted for 2.6 per cent of all trafficking offences in the year ending December 2023, with just 92 cases.

Greater Bendigo was the only regional LGA to be in the top 10, five offences, while Latrobe and Horsham came in at number 17 with 2 offences.

The Mornington Peninsula had two cases.

GHB

GHB trafficking made up more than 11.4 per cent of all trafficking offences, with almost 10 per cent of those dealers being picked up in the CBD.

Melbourne’s suburbs make up two thirds of all GHB trafficking offences, despite two of the top three LGAs being in regional Victoria (Greater Bendigo at 21 and Latrobe at 20).

OTHER DRUGS

Heroin made up just 5.7 per cent of all trafficking offences, with most dealers being nabbed in Yarra where Victoria’s controversial injecting room is based.

More than a quarter of the offences took place in the inner-eastern LGA.

Party drug ecstasy was mostly dealt in Melbourne’s CBD, with almost double the amount of traffickers to the second LGA of Port Phillip.

There were 54 cases of amphetamine trafficking and 49 cases where police did not record the type of drug being trafficked.

The remaining 145 offences were for other drugs.