How authorities are tackling Australia’s flood of Mexican cartel drugs

Police have warned of a “tsunami” of drugs like ice and heroin flooding our shores, thanks to powerful Mexican cartels. How did they get a foothold in Australia — and how do authorities stop them?

Police last week smashed a drug smuggling plot involving a Mexican drug cartel which would have seen the largest ever shipment of ice trafficked into Australia.

And authorities are concerned about the reach these deadly Mexican crime organisations like the ‘El Chapo’ Sinaloa cartel have on our shores, with an ice-cold drug lord behind the infamous murder of a US agent in Mexico in the 1980s now a key target.

But how exactly do they hope to smuggle their huge hauls of ice, heroin and other drugs past authorities — and how do police stop them?

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Drug lord known as “Godfather” is a key target of Australian police.

Tenoch Huerta as Rafael Caro Quintero in television show Narcos Mexico.

Drugs, passports and money seized as part of last week’s joint operation. Picture: Erik Anderson

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Bruce Hill has warned the country is under siege by these cartels, which are attempting to flood the country with a “tsunami” of deadly illicit drugs.

Last month the Herald Sun spoke to AFP Senior Liaison Officer Conrad Jensen, who is stationed in Mexico City.

Mr Jensen, who has been in Mexico since October 2017, warned that deadly Mexican cartels are responsible for a massive amount of ice which ends up in Australia.

On January 20 the Herald Sun revealed a top drug trafficker is a key target of AFP looking to stop the influx of ice and cocaine into the country.

Rafael Caro Quintero, also known as “Godfather” and “RCQ”, has been a significant drug trafficker for four decades, despite spending much of that time in jail.

Quintero, 66, was imprisoned for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 before being released by a Mexican court in 2013.

Quintero’s Sinaloa cartel has been deemed a major crime group responsible for Australia’s ice epidemic.

The Sinaloa cartel, named for the state of Mexico where it was formed, became infamous under the leadership of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who was extradited to the US to face charges of bringing huge amounts of cocaine into that country.

What was seized in recent drug bust.

The 66-year-old was imprisoned for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985 before being released by a Mexican court in 2013.

Quintero’s criminal exploits in the 1980s have been documented in the recent Netflix show Narcos: Mexico.

Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion (CJNG), which has challenged the Sinaloa cartel for supremacy in recent years, is another group authorities know smuggle drugs into Australia.

The cartels form links with crime groups in Australia — most notably outlaw motorcycle gangs — who then manage the distribution of drugs to users here once the illicit narcotics are smuggled into the country.

“You have shipping ­containers out of Mexican ports, through the international shipping system to Australia or airfreight,” Mr Jensen said.

“It is a lot harder to get it from Mexico to Australia and that is part of the driver for that (high) price in Australia. The Mexican groups at this end are very reliant on those criminal contacts in Australia.

“Over many years they have built those contacts with the criminals groups that we have in Australia that are largely responsible for the domestic distribution of drugs.

“You are talking about the outlaw motorcycle gangs or Chinese organised crime.

“So the different ­organised crime groups are working together with a common interest of making illicit profits.”

Head of the Sinaloa Cartel Hector Palma Salazar, alias "El Gero", being arrested in Mexico in 2007.

Rafael Caro Quintero.

Cash seized by Mexico's army from the Sinaloa cartel after a raid.

The AFP work with Mexican police and law enforcement in the United States of America to try and seize the drugs before they leave North and Central America — as was the case with the massive haul of narcotics found last month.

“Our role here is to largely work with our Mexican and international partners here on joint operations and sharing information and intelligence on organised crime threats that have an impact on Australia,” Mr Jensen told the Herald Sun.

“The majority of work is drugs and methamphetamine is a priority for us.

“We get cocaine coming out of Mexico to Australia as well but tied in with that drug work is money laundering and looking at some of the precursor chemical issues.

“Since I have been here we have only seen finished product shipped from here to Australia.

“You can’t have the view that you are just waiting at the border in Australia for the drugs to arrive.

“Offshore working with those international partners to disrupt the group at this end and ideally take out the drugs before it even leaves Mexico, that’s where we need to be.

“It is not just about the drugs, if you can attack their profits, their assets that is as good or even better than taking out the drugs on arrival as well.”

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@davidhurleyHS