Authorities forced to comb through ‘high-risk’ European imports for ketamine
Australian authorities are being forced to comb through massive industrial imports arriving from Europe for stashes of the illegal party drug ketamine — and one country has emerged as a hotspot for supply.
Police & Courts
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France has emerged as one of Australia’s biggest ketamine suppliers, forcing authorities to comb through massive industrial imports arriving from Europe for stashes of the illegal party drug.
Australian Border Force officials say major counter-terrorism operations, an influx of asylum seekers and police protection ahead of the Paris Olympics in July have made the European nation a “high-risk” target for criminal networks attempting to hijack international supply chains to distribute the drug overseas.
ABF Maritime Operations Superintendent Dan Peters told the Sunday Herald Sun the “rip on, rip off” approach – hiding ketamine in vehicles on board roll-on roll-off ships (ROROs) stacked with hundreds of European model cars, motorbikes and industrial machinery – was one of the most lucrative ways international criminals ferried drugs into Australia.
He said the most popular hiding spots for criminals to hide drugs were within the lining and seats of vehicles in those fleets, which often included French-made Renault vans.
“The ROROs coming out of France have been a priority for us because they’ve been an opportunity for organised crime groups to conceal border control drugs coming out of that area,” he said.
“They find vehicles dwelling on the wharves before they’re loaded and conceal drugs in panels of the vehicles and then wait for them to come to shore before ripping them (drugs) out here.
“We’ve got information sharing with other agencies and overseas partners and they will target our enforcement on those particular vessels. That’s why we know that France has been a particularly high-risk route at the moment.”
“Onerous and arduous” searches of the large ships docking in Melbourne and at other major ports around the country can take up to six hours with a crew of more than a dozen Border Force officials using classified hi-tech search methods and detection dogs.
271 RORO ships docked in Victoria last year, giving criminals the chance to stash ketamine in up to 3,500 vehicles on board.
Mr Peters said organised crime networks exploited thinly stretched police resources and border patrols in France and across Europe by hijacking legitimate industrial exports with the help of crooked industry insiders.
“They’ve got a lot of hot issues to cover and are maybe not as well resourced in this area at the moment,” he said.
“There’s so many actors in the supply chain from building the vehicles, to when they first get to the wharves and then transported across the world that dealerships and manufacturers really have no idea that commodities are being used to conceal border controlled drugs.”
Mr Peters said Australia’s seemingly insatiable appetite for illicit drugs, particularly ketamine, cocaine and ecstasy, meant users were willing to pay inflated prices that lined criminals’ pockets with more can that if they shipped drugs to other nations such as the US or South America.
Australians pay some of the highest prices for drugs anywhere in the world, and wastewater data shows record ketamine use alongside a spike in the consumption of meth and cocaine.
The drug is a sedative with hallucinogenic effects that distorts sight and sound, and in adverse cases results in seizures or cardiac arrest.
“There’s opportunities from crime groups in that particular region to look at the ketamine market and methamphetamine to distribute it,” Mr Peters said.
“Australia is a lucrative market for drugs and they’re certainly targeting the border in Australia where they can.”
Despite targeted intelligence operations, ketamine has continued to infiltrate Australian borders.
In July last year, 37-year-old Altona man Liam Moody was busted loading 80kg of ketamine off a truck in Lara.
Another 80kg had been buried in eskies in the backyard, making the haul one of the largest busts in the country.
In May last year, the ABF discovered 79 plastic bags full of 84kg of ketamine worth $3.3m on board a RORO bound for Melbourne.
Two 28 and 29-year-old men were charged with attempting to possess a commercial amount of the drug in cases that remain before the courts.
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