Border Force warning as cocaine busts in Australia jump to record highs

Australia is being forced to confront more cocaine shipments than ever before as the country faces a global surge in drug trafficking after the pandemic.

Cocaine busts in Australia have jumped to extraordinary levels with Australian Border Force officers seizing almost five tonnes of the white powder in the past year.

More cocaine shipments than ever before are being smuggled into the country as Australia is gripped by the massive global surge in drug trafficking after the pandemic.

The revelations come as new research from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2023 Global Report on Cocaine shows one in 10 Australians have used cocaine at least once in their life and Australia had the world’s highest national usage among people aged 14 and older.

Law enforcement agencies from across the world led an operation which resulted in 43 arrests and more than 100 drug seizures. Picture: ABF.

Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram said they the ABF can double its strike rate. Picture: Julian Andrews.

Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram said there have been a record 4,296 separate discoveries resulting in 4.7 tonnes of cocaine seized in the past financial year – a massive 166 per cent increase.

In contrast the average amount of cocaine seized at borders over the past decade has been 2.2 tonnes a year. The previous peak for cocaine seizures was in 2020-21, when 2.57 tonnes of cocaine was discovered.

Among the biggest busts were 2.4 tonnes discovered in Perth – the biggest in Australian history, 1.1 tonnes worth an estimated $440 million from two containers in Sydney Harbour, and 247kg found in Queensland on a yacht moored in Townsville.

Forensic profiling shows most cocaine seized in Australia is coming from Columbia and Peru and much of the cocaine is shipped to Australia through European ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp where it has been found inside torpedos, banana shipments and wooden planks according to the Director General Customs of the Netherlands Nanette van Schelven.

But there is new intelligence that ports in South Africa are also being used and Indian nationals have been caught up arranging the smuggling.

Australian Border Force seized 120kg of cocaine at Sydney’s port. Picture: ABF.

Director General Customs of the Netherlands Nanette van Shelven was in Sydney to discuss the fight against drug smuggling. Picture: Julian Andrews.

Ms van Schelven said they found a record eight tonnes of cocaine seized in just one cargo container ship.

She spoke out about the surge in cocaine while in Australia to share intelligence and discuss strategies with crime agencies. Mr Outram said the traditional “Border Five” the customs equivalent of the intelligence’ agencies “Fives Eyes”, is expanding and seeking to share more information.

Mr Outram said it is only 25 per cent of what is suspected of being trafficked into the country according to data from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and borders not only need more boots on the ground and better technology.

More than a tonne of cocaine was seized in Port Botany. Picture: ABF.

“We have to get better at targeting. “We think we can double our strike rate in the next 10 years.”

“We can’t open three or four million containers a year it is not logically possible. So we have to be far smarter we need to get better data, be more data driven …

Three people have been arrested over an 800kg bust of cocaine. Source ABF

Ms van Schelven said her agency is working with cargo companies and other industries which hold shipping data to collate and use patterns of information to detect and predict which ships may be used to traffic drugs.

Ms van Schelven said they are working with other on water operators such as crew of pilot boats which often “see more than we do” particularly things like “soft signals” indicating there may be drugs on board.

“We have to think seriously about technology in the future … our abilities to screen cargo and people in real time as they come across our border and to link that … through AI.

“There is a lot of modernisation that needs to occur to manage the risk at the same time as accommodating the volumes of goods that are so important for our economy.”