Crime gangs targeting vulnerable students to be ’drug catchers’ for major importations

Evil crime syndicates have seized on this vulnerable group of people to ensure big drug hauls can make their way into Melbourne.

Over 150kg of meth was seized in smuggling operation linked to foreign students in Melbourne.

International students have emerged as a key weapon for crime cartels, which use them as “drug catchers” for major importations.

The Australian Federal Police says it has found in the past four years that transnational organised crime groups are increasingly targeting students on visas to receive and deliver packages containing illicit drugs.

A succession of big drug hauls arriving in Melbourne have been linked to foreign students in recent years, leaving them to carry the can while sparing the organisers from being implicated.

More than 56,000 international students came back to Australia on student visas after Covid-19 restrictions were eased in the three months to February this year.

AFP Detective Superintendent Jason McArthur said overseas students were at risk of being exploited by criminals as the cost of living rose.

“Criminal syndicates are exploiting vulnerable individuals on student visas in the hope of distancing and protecting themselves from the attention of law enforcement,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it is those taking receipt of illicit packages who are often caught red-handed while moving these harmful drugs into our community, placing their own freedom and future at risk.”

Cash seized from Indian nationals accused of involvement in major meth importation seized at Southbank and Keilor in February last year.

Det Supt McArthur said the AFP was issuing a warning to students to be wary of anyone offering large sums of money for little work.

“If you are contacted by a stranger – or even a “friend of a friend” – and offered a job that could make you a lot of money for seemingly little work, this should raise alarm bells,” he said.

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. These criminals are not just paying you to pick up or move their packages, they are paying you to go to jail instead of them.”

In February last year, the AFP arrested three Indians in Melbourne on student visas after more than a kilogram of methamphetamine was found during searches at properties in Southbank and Keilor Park.

The drugs had an estimated street value of $900,000. Police also seized $50,000 cash and mobile phones.

A year earlier, in February 2020, A French-Canadian was paid $40,000 by a criminal syndicate to act as a “drug catcher” for 154kg of methamphetamine from Mexico.

The estimated street value of the illicit cargo was $138.6m

In the same month the AFP arrested four Melbourne students attempting to import 12.5kg of cocaine into Australia under the orders of a Colombian criminal syndicate.

The cocaine had a street value estimated at $5m.

The Herald Sun revealed in 2018 that foreign students were being recruited by organised crime gangs to mind huge indoor cannabis crops.

Most were being paid a pittance to crop-sit for organisers making millions.