Australia’s new dangerous drug lord Anthony Phillip Sitar
This is the Aussie fugitive who has been on the run for more than a decade who is now part of an international drug war involving billion dollar deals.
Narcos on the Front Line
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An Australian fugitive on the run for more than a decade is now suspected of brokering billion dollar drug deals in Mexico.
Anthony Phillip Sitar, 43, fled Australia in 2011 when he was linked to a $300 million drug importation.
He managed to skip the country just hours before he was due to be arrested by the Australian Federal Police.
Sitar vanished like a ghost, with his passport never used to leave the country.
He’s been on an Interpol Red Notice for years, but Narcos on the frontline – a special News Corp investigation today reveals that he has been living in luxury in Latin America.
The seven-part docuseries, Narcos on the front line, follows the global drug trade – from the cocaine fields of Colombia and meth labs of Mexico to Australia’s streets.
The series also uncovers how drug cartels are planning to flood Australia with a wave of super strength ice, a deadly opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and industrial scale supplies of ketamine.
Watch the trailer of the Narcos on the front line docuseries above.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield told the series federal authorities are taking the fight to the cartels.
“The AFP is really committed to taking the fight offshore to stop the drugs at the source,” Asst Comm Schofield said in an interview at the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico – a major shipping point for ice and cocaine.
“Drug trafficking is a global problem and the scale of it is phenomenal.”
Just one shipping container seized at the Lazaro Cardenas port concealed 15 tonnes of precursor chemicals – enough to make a year’s supply of ice for Australia.
The development comes as top cops from around the globe gathered at a secret summit in Sydney to smash the deadly international drug trade.
An entire floor of a hotel in the city’s CBD was locked down where the conference was held over three days earlier this month.
Police from 46 countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the Netherlands attended the world-first Transnational Serious and Organised Crime summit.
Police shared intelligence about their tactics and information about key targets in the local jurisdictions.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner (AFP) Nigel Ryan said the summit would disrupt the drug trade.
“Law enforcement … we’re the biggest gang in the world,” Asst Comm Ryan said.
“And by working together, we can have some sort of impact to make the environment hostile for organised criminals.”
The face-to-face meeting mirrors some of the tactics of Italy’s Ndrangheta mafia, who meet each year in person to discuss their drug trades at a Festival of the Madonna in Calabria.
“Criminals don’t have to play by the rules and they don’t have the legislation,” Asst Comm Ryan said.
“So the speed of organised crime at the moment is moving at the speed of electrons.”
Police are now targeting money laundering, corruption in supply chains at airports and ports, and secret communications between criminals rather than simply going after one suspect.
The head of Mexico’s criminal investigations agency Felipe Gallo told the summit about the new threats from the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels.
Jeremy Douglas, representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in southeast Asia, spoke about the influence of Chinese organised crime in the Golden Triangle.
The meeting was arranged with the help of the Australian Federal Police’s 33 global offices.
Those AFP members spend four year stints at locations all over the world, sharing tips about criminals with their local counterparts.
Australia has also been able to provide training and equipment to some countries, particularly when it comes to cracking criminals’ secret phones.
Commander Rob Nelson, who heads up the encrypted communications division at the Australian Federal Police, said partnerships were crucial.
“We’re sitting there and discussing the opportunities that exist,” Cmdr Nelson said.
“And that’s not only amongst our more traditional partners in being the Five Eyes partners of the US and Canada and the UK and New Zealand.
“We have a very strong relationship with Europe, but we’re also looking at where those other opportunities exist, particularly in source countries such as South America within the Middle East and other parts.”
Commander Nelson said there was “a lot of enthusiasm amongst the partners and the participants that we’ve got to actually learn more and share and collaborate.”
Go to Narcos on the front line to watch every episode of our seven-part investigation.
Originally published as Australia’s new dangerous drug lord Anthony Phillip Sitar
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