FED:Crime report highlights Mexican drug risk

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2011
FED:Crime report highlights Mexican drug risk

By Joel Cresswell

MELBOURNE, April 15 AAP - Australia's flourishing economy is proving irresistible to
brutal Mexican drug cartels and other organised crime syndicates, the Australian Crime
Commission (ACC) says.

ACC chief John Lawler says the Mexican cartels would continue to push hard into Australia
where they could reap up to 100 times more for a kilo of cocaine than in South America.

Speaking at the launch of the ACC's report into organised crime, Mr Lawler highlighted
the amphetamine trade, money laundering and identity crime as the biggest risks to Australia.

He described organised crime rings such as the Mexican cartels as an "ever evolving
trans-national phenomena of immense size".

"If we look at the supply side we have quite clearly a very wealthy country, a very
lucrative market and we have the economics of that where a kilogram of cocaine in Colombia
is about $2500 and in Australia it can be, on our latest reports, anywhere between $150,000
and $250,000," Mr Lawler said.

The ACC report, Organised Crime in Australia, launched in Melbourne on Friday is regarded
as the most comprehensive study to date into underworld activity.

It describes organised crime as borderless, says it is embracing new technology at
a frightening pace and puts its cost to Australia at between $10 and $15 billion annually.

Home Affairs and Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor described the report as a "how-to
manual" for fighting organised crime.

He said the report highlighted the rapidly changing face of organised crime from which
no sector was immune.

"We must dismiss any traditional view we may have had of organised criminals being
limited to geographical areas, common ethnic groups or social systems," he said.

"They work beyond their borders to operate transnationally, they join forces where
it suits them, work across multiple criminal markets and use processes and strategies
that frequently mirror the corporate and legitimate world."

The report aims to educate businesses and individuals to create an environment "less
fertile for organised crime".

Accompanying the release of the report is a series of public fact sheets on cyber crime,
outlaw motorcycle gangs, money laundering and the drug trade.

"We are arming people with the knowledge they need to report potential criminal activities,"

Mr Lawler said.

Closer collaboration between law enforcement, government and industry against the high
level criminal activity is also recommended.

The report describes Australia's illegal party drug market as a multi-billion-dollar
enterprise with a large number of syndicates.

"Australians are among the world's highest per capita consumers of illicit stimulants,
and drug prices in Australia far exceed prices overseas, making domestic drug production
and importation highly profitable," the report says.

The role of ethnic crime is also examined, concluding the greater propensity for violence
of certain groups.

AAP jcr/mh/jlw

KEYWORD: CRIME (WITH VIDEO)

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