Trusted insiders: Who’s next on Australian cops’ hit list in Operation Ironside

Police will now target a raft of trusted insiders – corrupt people working in legitimate businesses and help drug lords get their evil cargo into Australia.

Exclusive: Trusted insiders – corrupt people working in legitimate businesses who help drug lords get their evil cargo into Australia and sell it onto the streets – will be taken down by police after being identified through Operation Ironside.

Employees in the supply chain including freight forwarding and logistics companies, couriers, trucking firms, those working at ports, airports and mail centres have all been identified.

Lawyers, accountants, and some government officials have also been identified as enablers of Australia’s multi-billion-dollar drug trafficking industry.

Police will be targeting those involved in freight companies and ports to stop criminal activity. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Paul Jeffers

The trusted insiders, or “doors’’, either turn a blind eye to allow drugs, illicit goods and illegal money to cross international or domestic borders, or actively assist, in return for a cut of the profits, sometimes as high as 20 per cent.

Some were not aligned to any individual criminal groups and instead worked as a facilitator-for-hire for anyone who wanted their corrupt services.

Detective Superintendent Anthony Hall, the deputy senior investigation officer for Operation Ironside in Victoria, has been seconded from Operation Centinel, a joint AFP/Australian Border Force investigation into supply chain integrity, which investigates trusted insiders used by organised crime.

“I think it’s important to talk about the enablers of organised crime. Such as encrypted (communications), money facilitators, professional facilitators,’’ Det Supt Hall said.

“And this where the crossover with Centinel occurs. We have intelligence on how trusted industry insiders, throughout the supply chain, are being used.

“All of those professional facilitators and enablers are significant issues to the national security of Australia. What we see is a significant number of organised crime groups recruiting people within those industries within the chain and then using them to facilitate their business.’’

Det Supt Hall said the “facilitators for hire’’ had been a problem to police for some time, but that Operation Ironside had given police insight into how they worked, and how deep the problem ran.

The AFP works with other government agencies such as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and AUSTRAC, but their main partner in Operation Centinel is the Australian Border Force, which had daily dealings with the supply chain industry.

Rob Dzaja, the Acting Inspector of Operation Ironside, said trusted insiders in the supply chain were asking for 20 per cent of the entire drugs shipment to secure its entry into the country.

Australian Federal Police will continue to find those linked to drug busts that have previously turned a blind eye. Picture: Supplied

“And that’s just business,’’ he said.

“You look at a person working at a freight forwarder for a hundred kilo importation (of drugs), they’re taking 20 kilos … just to facilitate that importation for these organised crime groups.

“We traditionally call those (people) “doors” in this country and that’s what the criminals call them too. And multiple groups will use the same person because that’s a business that that person provides.’’

Assistant Commissioner of Crime Command Nigel Ryan said the operation had identified a number of “professional facilitators.’’

“You see lawyers, you see accountants, you see freight forwarders, all those types of things are prevalent in organised crime generally but we most certainly have seen that type of activity in Ironside as well,’’ he said.

Asked if people working in Government agencies were among those identified, he said: “we do know there are a number of trusted insiders that are operating … where they exactly work, we will keep to ourselves for now.

“Rest assured once we have finished the work we are doing here, we will be relentless in terms of bringing those people down. We are coming for them.”

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Originally published as Trusted insiders: Who’s next on Australian cops’ hit list in Operation Ironside