Piggybacking remains a popular method for overseas criminal gangs smuggling drugs into Australia by secretly hiding them in shipments.
The warning came after Border Force officers seized 900kg of Speed in Port Botany, Sydney, last week.
The drugs had been ‘piggybacked’ in a container full of spring rolls without the importer’s knowledge, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) says.
AFP Detective Superintendent Morgen Blunden says there have been many cases of overseas gangs using legal business shipments to piggyback their drugs into the country.
“The AFP attends Port Botany on a regular basis and has seized multiple shipments of drugs,” he says.
(Piggybacking refers to the practice of ‘riding’ on the efforts of others.)
The police described the haul as one of the largest involving Speed to be seized in NSW.
Australian Border Force Superintendent Jared Leighton said the Port Botany seizure was a remarkable one in that a risk assessment system was used to choose the container for examination.
“Containers aren’t randomly selected for inspection at our border; we use a sophisticated intelligence and risk assessment-based approach, which has proven to yield significant results,” he says.
“The scale of harm that would have been caused if these drugs landed in our community is unimaginable, so I congratulate all the officers involved in this seizure.”
PIGGYBACKING TO SEIZURE
The AFP says the container arrived at Port Botany on Wednesday, August 20, and was targeted for a search by Border officers.
The container was declared to contain “vegetable spring roll and more” but an x-ray revealed anomalies inside.
The container was unpacked and Border officers found 100 boxes, each one containing six rolls of plastic film wrapped around cardboard rolls.
A detector dog reacted positively after a cardboard roll was drilled into which revealed white granules; the substance was later confirmed as amphetamine, the AFP says.
Concealed in the boxes were 600 rolls of plastic film, each estimated to contain 1.5kg of amphetamine (or Speed) with a total estimated street value of more than $64 million.
AFP officers searched a North Shore home and warehouse in Western Sydney earlier this week. Inquiries are continuing.
- Anyone with any information about illegal drugs and goods being smuggled into the country can contact Border Watch at abf.gov.au/borderwatch, anonymously if you want.
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