Teh One Who Knocks
06-21-2021, 11:49 AM
Natalie Brown - News.com.au
https://i.imgur.com/8EecFTZ.jpg
A major investigation has blown the lid on Australia’s cocaine war, revealing that quantities of the drug are hitting our shores at unprecedented levels and the shocking truth at the heart of our nation’s crisis.
A Sky News Australia special, Australia’s Cocaine Crisis, has examined the extraordinary lengths that the kingpins of our nation’s cocaine trade go to to smuggle huge quantities of the substance onto our shores — and how the so-called “party drug” has come to impact every level of society.
“It is an absolute tsunami of drugs entering this country and you can’t blame the police — they’re a little force fighting it at the front end, but we are just being absolutely swamped by drugs, by meth, but mostly by cocaine,” News Corp Australia senior correspondent, Charles Miranda, who has been looking into Australia’s illicit drug market for decades, told host Peter Stefanovic.
While once considered the drug of the wealthy city dweller, statistics reveal cocaine usage has now spread much further — Australia is now the highest per capita user of the drug in the world, with trade estimated to be as high as $2 billion and five and a half tonnes consumed here each year — figures deemed “staggering” by Miranda.
“What we know from our wastewater data is that cocaine is a serious drug for the country. Australians are a country of stimulant users — cocaine is a stimulant,” the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s Dr Katie Willis said.
“All of the data that we have is pointing in the direction of expansion in the cocaine market.”
The fact that most people spent the last 12 months locked indoors has done little “to diminish the appetite for cocaine in this country”, explained Miranda.
“It’s just phenomenal. And in some respects, the war is escalated behind the scenes, behind the sort of distraction that is Covid-19,” he said.
“The value of it has gone up, under the perception that it’s harder to get, but it’s not harder to get. We’re getting more ship exports, genuine ship exports, than ever before because we’re not flying as much airfreight — so we’re shipping it all, and in the guise of ship freights, of legitimate ship freights, are these drugs.”
The highest demand for cocaine is still in Sydney — which for years has demonstrated a remarkable appetite for the drug that only continues to grow, driven by a high level of social acceptance for cocaine and the fact that products are widely available, because the city is a major port of entry for goods coming into the country.
Data from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s wastewater analysis last year showed that the NSW capital consumed 15 doses of cocaine per 1000 people on average day, compared to Melbourne’s six doses, Brisbane’s five and Canberra’s 10.
At The Banyans “luxury rehabilitation clinic” in southeast Queensland, about two in five people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction come from Sydney — with CEO Ruth Limkin saying some there have spent as much as $10,000 or $20,000 a week on the habit.
https://i.imgur.com/3AC72u6.png
“You might remember years ago, it was sort of the mainstay for the media industry even, or the judicial industry, all the lawyers, rich people, high society, business types — cocaine was for the business types,” Miranda said.
“Now it’s every level of society, down to the tradies. Anyone who’s got a few bucks, it’s very easy to get hold of.”
While it may be easy to get a hold of, though, it’ll take more than “a few bucks” to do so — Australians pay a premium price for cocaine, forking out a minimum of $300 for a gram, which equates to about 10 lines or doses.
“What is known that of course it is worth a lot more, and sold for a much higher price, in Australia than it is in Mexico, here, or Colombia, or the United States,” Andalusia Knoll Soloff, a reporter based in Mexico City, explained.
“Here in Mexico, one gram of cocaine on average costs between $3 and $14 — it depends on what part of the city or the country you’re in. Then once it gets to the United States, it’s worth between $60 and $80, and then once it gets to Australia it’s worth around $300.”
https://i.imgur.com/GV7eHWt.png
A significant segment of the price is driven by the major profit margins enjoyed by local organised crime groups who have facilitated the importation of the drug from international suppliers — often cartels in South America.
According to NSW Police Organised Crime Squad’s Detective Superintendent Martin Fileman, the huge profit margins directly correlate to the size of the risks facilitators are willing to take to bring the drug into Australia.
“When you look at the way where Australia is, and you look at the price you can pay for a kilo of cocaine in America, or even Australia to South America — South America [it’s] $3000 a kilo, here, $230,000 a kilo,” he said.
“So the risks that these facilitators or these organised crime syndicates in Australia — they are willing to take [them].”
On June 8, the “sting of the century”, Operation Ironside, nabbed dozens of suspects as part of a global operation to bring down terrorist groups, mafia organisations and outlaw motorcycle gangs.
“We’ve taken their money, we’ve taken their livelihoods, and we’ve arrested, you know, 250 people in Australia and 800 people across the globe,” Australian Federal Police Commander Kirsty Schofield said.
But the sting only hit about five or 10 per cent of the cocaine flushing into Australia — showing we’re a country very much in crisis mode.
“The unfortunate part about it is we have a market over here for cocaine, so as long as we’ve got a market, they’re going to keep importing it,” Supt Fileman said.
https://i.imgur.com/8EecFTZ.jpg
A major investigation has blown the lid on Australia’s cocaine war, revealing that quantities of the drug are hitting our shores at unprecedented levels and the shocking truth at the heart of our nation’s crisis.
A Sky News Australia special, Australia’s Cocaine Crisis, has examined the extraordinary lengths that the kingpins of our nation’s cocaine trade go to to smuggle huge quantities of the substance onto our shores — and how the so-called “party drug” has come to impact every level of society.
“It is an absolute tsunami of drugs entering this country and you can’t blame the police — they’re a little force fighting it at the front end, but we are just being absolutely swamped by drugs, by meth, but mostly by cocaine,” News Corp Australia senior correspondent, Charles Miranda, who has been looking into Australia’s illicit drug market for decades, told host Peter Stefanovic.
While once considered the drug of the wealthy city dweller, statistics reveal cocaine usage has now spread much further — Australia is now the highest per capita user of the drug in the world, with trade estimated to be as high as $2 billion and five and a half tonnes consumed here each year — figures deemed “staggering” by Miranda.
“What we know from our wastewater data is that cocaine is a serious drug for the country. Australians are a country of stimulant users — cocaine is a stimulant,” the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s Dr Katie Willis said.
“All of the data that we have is pointing in the direction of expansion in the cocaine market.”
The fact that most people spent the last 12 months locked indoors has done little “to diminish the appetite for cocaine in this country”, explained Miranda.
“It’s just phenomenal. And in some respects, the war is escalated behind the scenes, behind the sort of distraction that is Covid-19,” he said.
“The value of it has gone up, under the perception that it’s harder to get, but it’s not harder to get. We’re getting more ship exports, genuine ship exports, than ever before because we’re not flying as much airfreight — so we’re shipping it all, and in the guise of ship freights, of legitimate ship freights, are these drugs.”
The highest demand for cocaine is still in Sydney — which for years has demonstrated a remarkable appetite for the drug that only continues to grow, driven by a high level of social acceptance for cocaine and the fact that products are widely available, because the city is a major port of entry for goods coming into the country.
Data from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s wastewater analysis last year showed that the NSW capital consumed 15 doses of cocaine per 1000 people on average day, compared to Melbourne’s six doses, Brisbane’s five and Canberra’s 10.
At The Banyans “luxury rehabilitation clinic” in southeast Queensland, about two in five people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction come from Sydney — with CEO Ruth Limkin saying some there have spent as much as $10,000 or $20,000 a week on the habit.
https://i.imgur.com/3AC72u6.png
“You might remember years ago, it was sort of the mainstay for the media industry even, or the judicial industry, all the lawyers, rich people, high society, business types — cocaine was for the business types,” Miranda said.
“Now it’s every level of society, down to the tradies. Anyone who’s got a few bucks, it’s very easy to get hold of.”
While it may be easy to get a hold of, though, it’ll take more than “a few bucks” to do so — Australians pay a premium price for cocaine, forking out a minimum of $300 for a gram, which equates to about 10 lines or doses.
“What is known that of course it is worth a lot more, and sold for a much higher price, in Australia than it is in Mexico, here, or Colombia, or the United States,” Andalusia Knoll Soloff, a reporter based in Mexico City, explained.
“Here in Mexico, one gram of cocaine on average costs between $3 and $14 — it depends on what part of the city or the country you’re in. Then once it gets to the United States, it’s worth between $60 and $80, and then once it gets to Australia it’s worth around $300.”
https://i.imgur.com/GV7eHWt.png
A significant segment of the price is driven by the major profit margins enjoyed by local organised crime groups who have facilitated the importation of the drug from international suppliers — often cartels in South America.
According to NSW Police Organised Crime Squad’s Detective Superintendent Martin Fileman, the huge profit margins directly correlate to the size of the risks facilitators are willing to take to bring the drug into Australia.
“When you look at the way where Australia is, and you look at the price you can pay for a kilo of cocaine in America, or even Australia to South America — South America [it’s] $3000 a kilo, here, $230,000 a kilo,” he said.
“So the risks that these facilitators or these organised crime syndicates in Australia — they are willing to take [them].”
On June 8, the “sting of the century”, Operation Ironside, nabbed dozens of suspects as part of a global operation to bring down terrorist groups, mafia organisations and outlaw motorcycle gangs.
“We’ve taken their money, we’ve taken their livelihoods, and we’ve arrested, you know, 250 people in Australia and 800 people across the globe,” Australian Federal Police Commander Kirsty Schofield said.
But the sting only hit about five or 10 per cent of the cocaine flushing into Australia — showing we’re a country very much in crisis mode.
“The unfortunate part about it is we have a market over here for cocaine, so as long as we’ve got a market, they’re going to keep importing it,” Supt Fileman said.