Operation Jardena: How ABF inspector Vanessa Ruff is busting trusted insiders after AN0M

Australian Border Force inspector Vanessa Ruff has revealed how she’s exposing trusted insiders to bikies and crime gangs, and shutting down their networks. See the video.

It was the sting of the century. For three years, Australian and US authorities had a real-time window into organised crime through a messaging app the crooks thought was secure.

But Operation Ironside was also a wake-up call.

Australian Border Force inspector Vanessa Ruff, who was on secondment with the Australian Federal Police, said the unfiltered communications on AN0M revealed how transnational gangs operated with impunity.

“We’d lost control of the borders,” she said.

“Getting detected didn’t come into their thinking … It’s just the cost of doing business.”

“They knew they had it covered … They knew that that door wasn’t being closed. Even if a container got seized, that door they were using to get it across the border remained open.”

Australian Border Force inspector and Operation Jardena supply chain liaison officer, Vanessa Ruff who is out to bust crime gangs trying to smuggle drugs and other illegal items. Picture: Coleman-Rayner

That’s why Border Force established Operation Jardena, to weed out the trusted insiders opening those doors in the supply chain, and then slam them shut to keep drugs and other illegal goods out of Australia.

But most of those doors were being opened by gangs on the other side of the world, which is how Ms Ruff found herself moving to Los Angeles last year as the first Border Force officer stationed in the US.

The San Pedro Port in California where Australian Border Force inspector and Operation Jardena supply chain liaison officer, Vanessa Ruff is based. Picture: Coleman-Rayner

Her mission is to make sure the agency is “in the right place at the right time”, linking up with US authorities to share intelligence and investigative techniques.

It’s an alphabet soup – Ms Ruff works with the FBI, DEA, CBP, TSA and HSI – but the posting is proving to be the right recipe, one that Border Force is looking to make a permanent part of its operations.

Ms Ruff played a key role in Operation Tin Can, a global crackdown on the maritime supply chain revealed by News Corp this month that made more than 100 drug seizures – including almost 100 tonnes of cocaine – and 43 arrests across 58 countries.

She has also been establishing links with law enforcement agencies across South America and Canada, which has emerged as a top exporter of drugs down under.

Operation Tin Can involved customs, police, and other law enforcement agencies from across the world. Picture: ABF

“The mission is to be at the right table for the right meetings, so people know ABF is in the region,” Ms Ruff said.

“Transnational serious organised crime will always have someone in the supply chain, because if you’re importing goods then it’s crossing the border … Jardena was the ABF’s response to work better with partners at tightening the infiltration of supply chains.”

For Russell Simons, a supervisory special agent at US Homeland Security Investigations, the partnership is already paying dividends as he and Ms Ruff have collaborated to track several drug shipments.

“It is huge because criminal organisations, they have no boundaries,” he said.

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Originally published as Operation Jardena: How ABF inspector Vanessa Ruff is busting trusted insiders after AN0M