Blind eye turned to crime: AFP

Commissioner Reece Kershaw calls for global action to combat organised crime, saying some countries are ‘turning a blind eye’ to criminal activity within their borders.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw in his office in Canberra. Picture by Sean Davey.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has called for global action to combat organised crime, saying some countries are “turning a blind eye’’ to criminal activity within their borders.

In a speech to senior law ­enforcement officials on Wednesday night, Mr Kershaw targeted unnamed countries which he said were enabling organised crime through government inaction.

“We cannot ignore that some countries are producing precursors at an eye-watering scale,’’ he told the group, referring to the chemicals required to make illicit drugs such as methamphetamine, or ice. “We also cannot ignore that some countries, I’d argue, are turning a blind eye to the proceeds of crime washing through their economies.’’

The AFP has been working for years to stop huge drug hauls being smuggled into Australia, often organised by Australian citizens or associates based offshore.

The transnational serious ­organised crime (TSOC) syndicates often choose to run their ­operations from overseas, believing it helps them avoid law ­enforcement scrutiny and enforcement. “A significant number of TSOC syndicates targeting Australia have moved offshore to ­escape or deceive law enforcement,’’ Mr Kershaw said. “In some cases, this deception is enabled by the inaction of certain governments.’’

Mr Kershaw said organised crime syndicates found it easier to operate in countries that had unregulated chemical and financial markets.

His speech was delivered to the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group, a committee of senior law enforcement officials from Australia’s Five Eyes intelligence partners – the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Mr Kershaw, who is the current president, did not name countries or elaborate on which activities he was referring to.

But police and intelligence agencies have been focusing heavily on live-streamed child pornography being produced and facilitated in places such as The Philippines, the smuggling of tonnes of drugs such as cocaine from South America and Europe, hashish from Afghanistan and industrial-scale money-laundering facilitated by crime syndicates in Asia, particularly China.

Cyber criminals have also been operating with apparent impunity out of Russia and some Eastern European nations.

The Five Eyes law enforcement group has been looking at borderless responses to criminal activities, including by targeting the international reach of Italian organised crime, with Australia and Italy recently mapping 51 mafia clans operating in Australia, including 14 Calabrian, or ‘Ndrangheta mafia groups.

Mr Kershaw’s speech was ­delivered to an audience that ­included new Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, and officials from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, US Customs, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, New Zealand Police and UK Met police.