Thirty-three Caught in Australia Smuggling Drugs Internally in 2007

A 42-year-old Spanish woman has become the seventh person this year to be charged with smuggling drugs internally. Australian Federal Police and Customs officers caught 33 people attempting to smuggle drugs internally in 2007, including 16 Australian citizens or permanent residents.

AFP National Manager Border and International Tim Morris said the agencies were working together to combat the dangerous and potentially deadly practice of smuggling drugs internally.

“The work of both agencies has stopped 7.2 kilograms of heroin and 1.7 kilograms of cocaine - worth a combined total of $2.5 million - from reaching Australian streets,” Assistant Commissioner Morris said.

“People who engage in this illegal activity not only put their lives in danger from the drugs they are carrying but also risk severe penalties, including death, in the countries they transit.”

Customs Acting National Director Passengers Division, Gillian Savage, said that Customs officers were trained to be on the lookout for any signs which suggest people might be carrying drugs internally.

“Officers are trained to risk assess passengers and identify those individuals who may be of interest to Customs and other law enforcement agencies.

“Customs officers work closely with a range of federal and state law enforcement agencies to ensure that Australia’s borders are protected from a range of threats, including drug trafficking,” Ms Savage said.

The majority of the alleged couriers, including all the Australians, were concealing heroin internally. Five people were charged with smuggling cocaine.

Those charged arrived on flights from Vietnam, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, China, Malaysia and India.

The youngest of the 33 alleged couriers was a 21-year-old Singaporean, the eldest was a 71-year-old Australian and 15 of them were women.

Six Africans were among the 15 people charged with smuggling drugs internally in the last three months of 2007.

Assistant Commissioner Morris said the AFP and Customs were working with law enforcement agencies in Australia and overseas to combat this dangerous method of drug smuggling and to dismantle criminal syndicates attempting to smuggle drugs using internal couriers.

In 2007 AFP agents and Customs officers participated in a series of workshops in Vietnam and Cambodia aimed at tackling the trade in illicit drugs throughout the region. More are planned in 2008.

In December, the AFP arrested three men alleged to be major organizers of an international syndicate using internal couriers to smuggle drugs into Australia.

The latest woman charged was stopped by Customs officers when she arrived in Sydney off a flight from Dubai on 7 February.

Preliminary tests on a hairpiece the woman was wearing tested positive to cocaine and she was referred to the AFP. The wig was later found to contain approximately 700 grams of cocaine.

The AFP will allege in court that the woman also passed 39 pellets containing approximately 200 grams of a white powder believed to be cocaine.

She will appear in Sydney Central Local Court charged with importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug under the Criminal Code 1995.

The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years imprisonment and/or a $550,000 fine.

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