Australian Federal Police targeted human trafficking, illicit drugs and child exploitation in the NT and SA in 2024

Child exploitation, human trafficking and transnational organised crime were at the forefront of the Australian Federal Police Central Command in 2024, with a number of significant operations executed across South Australia and the Northern Territory throughout the year. Read the details.

Evidence seized by officers involved in operation Silkwood.

Child exploitation, human trafficking and transnational organised crime were at the forefront of the Australian Federal Police Central Command in 2024, with a number of significant operations executed across South Australia and the Northern Territory throughout the year.

This year marked the first time the AFP laid debt bondage – also known as debt slavery – and servitude charges, after a Colombian national residing in Adelaide was charged in November.

Central Command Investigators were also involved in one of the AFP’s most significant operational undertakings, Operation Kraken, a global take-down of an encrypted communications network.

AFP Central Command during debt bondage and servitude charges in South Australia. Picture: AFP

The NT Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team, comprising members of AFP and NT Police, made 28 arrests relating to 225 offences in the past financial year.

In December 2023, a Humpty Doo man appeared in the NT Supreme Court for possessing, producing and sharing 3500 child abuse images online.

He pleaded guilty to 31 offences and was sentenced to 13 years’ and seven months imprisonment, one of the highest sentences imposed in the Territory in the past 12 months.

In June 2024, an SA man was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment, one of the state’s most significant jail terms, for soliciting sexually explicit material from 10 foreign children via social media platforms.

In two separate matters, the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation team (CACT) in Central Command successfully applied to the SA and NT courts to have the homes of two separate online child abuse offenders either restrained or confiscated.

Two Victorian men were arrested in Adelaide following the seizure of 139kg of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of luxury buses. Picture: NCA NewsWire via AFP

The CACT successfully had the home of an NT man – sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by the NT Supreme Court for online child abuse offences – forfeited to the Commonwealth in July 2024, while the home of an alleged online child abuse offender in SA was restrained in December 2024.

AFP Commander Naomi Binstead said the AFP and its partners would continue to make Australia “a hostile environment for transnational serious organised crime syndicates” – both onshore and offshore.

“Every day, the AFP and our domestic and international law enforcement partners are ramping up pressure against those criminals who have committed serious crimes,” he said.

“I’d like to thank AFP investigators and all support capabilities in Central Command, who confront each challenge with pride and dedication, to help keep Australians safe year after year.”

Central Command also plays a vital role in the protection of critical infrastructure across SA and the NT, Ms Binstead said, including the protection of the Darwin Airport, Australian Government and defence facilities, and the protection of Australian dignitaries.

“The AFP works with state and territory law enforcement, intelligence agencies and other Commonwealth stakeholders to deliver protective security measures based on threat, risk and vulnerability,” she said.

Ms Binstead said the successes of 2024 reflected the hard work and dedication of Central Command.

“The AFP’s operational results and achievements highlight the incredible work we achieved in 2024, and we look forward to protecting Australians in 2025, and into the future.”