How Mexican and Chinese cartels are smuggling more drugs through Australia

South American cartels have joined forces with Chinese operatives to smuggle more cocaine, ice and heroin into Australia. This is how they do it.

Australia may only have a population of 25 million, but it is the world’s most targeted drug location.

South American cartels have joined forces with Chinese operatives to smuggle in huge quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

US Drug Enforcement Administration agents say the uptick in drug running across the Pacific is reminiscent of Miami, 30 years ago.

“There were DEA and Customs chasing down Colombian criminals through the Caribbean to Miami, so much drugs and cash,” one agent said of the 90s.

“But that is almost like what is happening now in Australia, PNG, Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji with all the open water maritime movements. Up until just a few months ago the largest meth amphetamine haul in the history of the United States was seized in Los Angeles in 2019 on its way to Australia.

Customs and Border Protection agents discovered methamphetamine hidden in speakers at the Long Beach seaport in mid-January 2019 bound for Australia. Picture: US Customs and Border Protection

The massive drug haul, concealed in speakers, was heading for Australia. Picture: US Customs and Border Protection

“That was 1.9 tons worth — some $1.3 billion (AUD$2 billion). That is pretty significant given the US has a pretty good meth appetite as well but for a country of 25 million people versus the United States with 300 and something million people for that load to be going to Australia shows organised crime has definitely circled Australia on the map and is working hard to get drugs into there.”

The drugs stash was the largest meth amphetamine haul in US history. Picture: US Customs and Border Protection

For that crime four Australians and two US citizens were arrested. Others are under investigation.

Counterpart agents in Colombia also point to Australian maps as the key destination for cocaine, grown in their country and controlled by Mexican crime cartels.

The Sinaloa Cartel pioneered drug trafficking through the Asia Pacific for the Australian market, linking in with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and Triads to move their shipments onshore.

But the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is also biting into the market, aggressively targeting Australia.

The Sinaloa State Police check suspicious vehicles on the quiet roads in a rural area outside of Culiacan in the search for Sinaloa Cartel members. Picture: Nathan Edwards

According to the latest intelligence, Sinaloa have joined forces with the 14K and Sun Yee On triad groups in both China including Hong Kong and Australia branching out from cocaine to methamphetamine and heroin largely from Myanmar.

Linking with the Chinese expanded their access to Chinese pharmaceuticals as meth precursors as well as Myanmar where the Chinese have established operations. Since the military coup in that country last year law enforcement intelligence on this area has become increasingly harder.

Sinaloa have joined forces with the 14K and Sun Yee On triad groups. Picture: Nathan Edwards

But in 2021 US law enforcement established CJNG had significantly upped its trafficking in the region, sometimes with Chinese partners and through the Pacific but always with the lucrative Australian market in mind.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said linking with 21 Pacific counterparts had already paid dividends including the seizure of 990 kgs of meth off the Australian coast and 500kg of cocaine in PNG both in 2020.

He said criminals were not bound by borders but neither were law enforcement agencies as they worked collaboratively to smash transnational criminals and the threats they posed.

“Transnational crime syndicates using Pacific nations as a transit point for illicit commodities intended for Australia bring the risk of violence and intimidation and they can subvert the financial system in those countries through access to illicit funds,” he said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime this year estimated the value of criminal proceeds laundered each year in Australia to be more than $13 billion. It found the cost of serious and organised crime to the country in losses and prevention was up to $70 billion.

Originally published as How Mexican and Chinese cartels are smuggling more drugs through Australia