International Conference on Tackling Drug Abuse
Topic: Country/Regional Report on drug abuse and law enforcement.
Speech by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty APM
Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Jockey Club Building Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Wednesday 23 February 2005
Please check against delivery
The Honourable Donald Tsang Yam Kuen, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Mr Ambrose Lee Siu Kwong Secretary for Security and Mr Stanley Ying Yiu Hong, Permanent Secretary for Security, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Dr Choi Yuen-wan, Chairman of Action Committee Against Narcotics; Mr Liu Zhimin, Deputy Secretary-General, National Narcotics Control Commission, People’s Republic of China; Ms Karen P. Tandy, Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Justice; Mr Akira Fujino, Representative United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Centre for East Asia and the Pacific; Mr Georges Estievenart, Former Executive Director, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction; Dr Hao Wei, Medical Officer, Mental Health and Control of Substance Abuse, World Health Organisation/Western Pacific Regional Office; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
I thank you for the opportunity to be with you here in Hong Kong today to present Australia's report card on drug abuse and law enforcement.
As Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police - Australia's national policing organisation - we consider ourselves very fortunate to enjoy a close working relationship with our counterparts here in Hong Kong and more broadly throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Today we have quite a large presence in the Asia-Pacific with more than 20 AFP posts - or about two-thirds of our International Network staff - in the region, and we have learnt much from colleagues in this part of the world over time.
I believe the AFP owes much of its success in fighting crime today to our relationships in the Asia-Pacific and I hope these continue to flourish for many years to come.
For those of you who don't know much about the AFP, as I mentioned we are Australia's national policing organisation and have a unique policing structure in world terms, with responsibility for policing at local, national and international levels.
Our role includes peacekeeping and regional capacity building - an important focus of our work today - as well as responsibility for investigating terrorism, organised crime, transnational crime, people smuggling, fraud, e-crime and of course, illicit drug trafficking.
We are supported in this task by policing services in each of Australia's six States as well as in the Northern Territory, and the AFP has responsibility for policing the Australian Capital Territory, which is home to the Federal Parliament and also to the diplomatic community in Australia.
We are a primary source of advice to the Australian Government on policing issues and represent Australia internationally on policing issues, including as a member of Interpol and as a representative on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
In relation to drugs, as Commissioner of the AFP I am Deputy Chair of the National Council on Drugs in Australia and have supervised the implementation of the law enforcement elements of the Government's National Illicit Drug Strategy.
Tackling illicit drugs is a high-priority for the Australian Government and law enforcement agencies. Our approach is multi-faceted, involving collaboration between the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, policing organisations, community and health services and the non-government sector.
The strategy focuses on demand reduction, supply reduction and harm reduction as well as prevention.
Before I talk more about the strategy, I'd like to give you an overview of trends in Australia's illicit drug market over recent years.
Drug trends in Australia
Over the past 5 years, two key trends have emerged.
The first was that Australia experienced a shortage of heroin from late 2000, which had significant implications for the market that are still being felt today.
Secondly, we have seen a major surge in demand for and availability of amphetamine type stimulants - the second most popular illicit drug in Australia after cannabis, with the latter market being relatively stable.
Heroin
As a relatively wealthy country Australia has been an attractive target for major international heroin syndicates, with most heroin imported coming from the Golden Triangle, particularly Myanmar.
In late 2000, the availability of heroin fell, a trend that seems to have been unique to Australia with other markets supplied by the Golden Triangle, such as Canada, not affected.
This led to some conjecture in Australia about the reasons for this. From a United Nations perspective, analysis found the shortage could be attributed - at least in part - to the success of law enforcement efforts in disrupting major trafficking syndicates supplying the Australian market with heroin from South East Asia.
This assessment was supported by the United Nations Drug Control Program, as well as by independent research conducted by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia.
Some suggestions that changes in the supply of opium with supply regions were the main reason for the heroin shortage, were not readily supported by the facts. Heroin availability in Australia did not fall after the relatively poor crop in Burma in 1999, and the shortage in Australia was apparent well before reduced Afghanistan production levels arising from the Taliban's restrictions could have impacted on global supplies.
But one aspect of the shortage that is not contested, is the significant implications on health outcomes and crime in Australia.
For instance, it led to a significant drop in the number of fatal overdoses from heroin, with some 600 fewer deaths per year than were occurring in the late 1990s.
In 2002, the latest year for which official figures are available, Australia recorded a total of 364 deaths from opioids among those aged in the 15 to 54 age group. This was the lowest figure in 10 years.
That trend has continued saving at least 1000 lives based on the 2000/01 overdose figures.
In addition to improved health outcomes, the heroin shortage also led to a reduction in robberies.
As the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Director, Dr Don Weatherburn, stated: "The heroin shortage that took hold in Australia early in 2001 has led to a steep fall in the prevalence of robbery across the country and shown us how important it is to stem the flow of heroin across our borders."
While heroin availability has increased since the shortage, it remains at levels substantially below those prior to its onset, and it is not expected to return to pre-2001 levels in the immediate future.
From a supply perspective, Australian law enforcement has observed a move away from major importations, to smaller, ad hoc importations driven by mid to lower level domestic syndicates.
We have found that these decentralised groups are more likely to deal in multi-drug importations and distributions, utilising a wide range of contacts.
Amphetamine-type substances
Turning now to the rising threat of synthetic drugs.
The demand for and availability of amphetamine type substances in Australia has been trending upward over recent years, which is consistent with global patterns.
In fact, the Ecstasy and Amphetamine Global Survey 2003 (As reported in O'Reilly J: Governance of Synthetic Drugs, Platypus Magazine, June 2004. P5) found that Australia has the highest levels of ecstasy use worldwide and ranks second in the prevalence of methamphetamine use. While this high ranking may partially reflect Australia's effective reporting systems, it still illustrates a concerning trend.
A large part of the demand for ATS is met by locally-made product and supplemented by supplies from China, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Koreas.
Over recent years, MDMA has comprised the major portion of federal ATS seizures, with the threat coming not only from organised crime groups but also amateur and speculative importers.
Recently, in conjunction with the Australian Customs service we uncovered Australia's biggest MDMA shipment. It comprised 820kg of MDMA tablets and powder worth approximately $200 million. The MDMA originated in Poland and was airfreighted in a bakery oven from Germany to Sydney, before being intercepted by authorities.
Cocaine
In relation to cocaine, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia remain the largest source countries for supply. Due to its high price in Australia, cocaine is considered a niche drug for higher socio-economic clientele and a drug of second-choice for recreational and injecting drug users.
Research from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicates decreased cocaine consumption and detections of use over recent times.
But at the same time, AFP research shows cocaine continues to be imported into Australia through a number of trafficking methods and routes.
Again, the trend in more recent years has been for smaller quantity importations and the growing use of the postal system as a method of distribution.
Air passenger detections also point to another trend in using multiple couriers on flights, with common nationalities and travel patterns of couriers suggesting a high level of organisation.
Internet drug crime
Another growing area of concern for us in relation to the illicit drug trade is the influence of internet technologies on the market.
Just as we are seeing in other parts of the world, criminals are increasingly using the internet to facilitate drug crimes, such as to advertise and sell illicit drugs, as well as to communicate and organise their activities.
The Internet also contains easy-to-access information about how to manufacture and distribute drugs, including where to purchase precursor chemicals, specialised drug-making equipment and instructions on how to produce or cultivate drugs.
And the use of online currency exchange is providing mobile and hard to trace transactions.
These developments in the online environment pose many emerging and significant challenges for law enforcement, not just in Australia but around the world.
In Australia, we have opened a dedicated investigative facility to deal specifically with these issues. It is called the Australian High Tech Crime Centre and is hosted by the AFP at our headquarters in Canberra.
Australia's drug strategy
As I mentioned earlier, Australia's response to the drug problem is an integrated one, involving law enforcement, health, prevention, education and treatment services.
From a law enforcement perspective, our focus is very much on prevention and partnerships with colleagues nationally and internationally. This is a successful model adopted by the AFP across a range of crime types.
Underpinning the strategy are a number of cooperative research projects that are helping us to get a better understanding of the structure and function of transnational crime syndicates as well as the impact of law enforcement efforts on the availability of drugs.
These have produced some interesting results, which I'll come back to in a moment, but first I'd like to talk about some of the key AFP initiatives working to combat illicit drugs.
Throughout much of Australia's history, the approach taken by law enforcement authorities to trafficking was fairly reactive in nature. Investigations largely centred around street seizures and tracing back the path of the drugs to the original source.
But the capability provided by the AFP's International Network over recent decades, has played a key role in redirecting the national focus towards reducing supply by detecting the illicit drugs before they reach Australia.
Our International Network today comprises 65 officers at 32 posts in 26 countries, and is instrumental in gathering intelligence and working with international counterparts across a range of crime types.
The strategy to disrupt syndicates in source or transit countries has been a successful one, with the AFP recording significant seizures and arrests over recent years.
Last year alone, the International Network was involved in approximately 84 per cent of all high impact work undertaken by the organisation, and three-quarters of the drugs seized by the AFP.
Some achievements attributable to the work of the International Network include:
The seizure of 1.5 tonnes of pseudoephedrine - enough to produce over 60 million street doses of methamphetamine - in the Philippines en route to Australia in March last year. This was a joint operation involving the AFP, a number of other Australian agencies, as well as the Philippines DEA and led to the arrest of 5 people in Australia.
In June, a multinational investigation involving the AFP, and police from Fiji, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China and Thailand, uncovered a large clandestine laboratory in Suva. Enough precursor chemicals were seized to produce up to one tonne of crystal methamphetamine (or ice). Seven people were arrested in Fiji.
In October, the AFP seized 125kg of crystal methamphetamine (ice) which was detected by Australian Customs inside hollowed out candles in a shipping container from China. This seizure had an estimated street value of A$100 million, or more than $600 million Hong Kong dollars.
And here in Hong Kong, the AFP undertook a joint operation with Hong Kong Police to investigate the activities of a Hong Kong based syndicate involved in the importation of large quantities of narcotics into Australia. Results included the arrest of eight people in Australia and the seizure of 76.5 kg of MDMA.
These investigations highlight the successful outcomes that are being achieved through regional cooperation and capacity building.
In recognition of this sort of success, the Australian Government has allocated significant funding to the AFP's International Network to pursue this approach.
In recent years, funding under the National Drugs Strategy has been used to establish new AFP officer positions in Beijing, Hanoi, Rangoon, The Hague and Bogota, as well as an intelligence analyst here in Hong Kong.
In addition to conducting investigations, the Network plays an important role in providing law enforcement training programs throughout the region. This includes training in the Management of Serious Crime, intelligence, basic and transnational narcotics investigations, ATS awareness and clandestine laboratory training.
Government funding has also been provided for mobile teams to target syndicates. These teams are intelligence-led and are working cooperatively with law enforcement partners at national and international levels to travel to drug hotspots and cut-off drug supplies at their source.
The AFP's involvement in the Transnational Targeting Network (TTN) is another key initiative in our collaborative approach to fighting drugs. This is a joint intelligence and operational targeting group involving law enforcement agencies from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand as well as Australia.
The TTN promotes information sharing to target high level traffickers and it recently played an important role in the arrest in Cambodia of Wong Moon Chi, in relation to methamphetamine matters.
A lot of the information gathered through these initiatives over time, is being used by the AFP to continually enhance targeting models, particularly in relation to drug syndicates.
One of these is called the "Hour Glass Model", which is helping us identify and target 'Facilitators'.
Facilitators use relationships of trust to draw together suppliers, investors, service suppliers and customers required for a successful importation.
While criminal syndicates change to suit the environment, they always contain facilitators. Investors may come and go, sources of supply will change, as will the international market. The facilitators provide the linchpin, building the trust that is critical to bringing all of the players together.
From a law enforcement perspective they are considered to be the prime point of vulnerability in a drug syndicate and are a major focus of our investigation work.
This model is delivering significant results and we are now looking to explore its application in other crime types.
Another law enforcement initiative integral to Australia's drug response is the Australian Illicit Drug Intelligence Program.
This is supporting investigations by developing our capabilities for profiling seized illicit drugs.
The Program enables us to identify regions of origin and manufacturing trends, with the information used to better target our resources and enhance our understanding of the market.
Over the longer term, a fundamental component of the national drug strategy is our focus on strengthening regional resistance to drug crime. Weaknesses in economic and social conditions among some of our neighbouring states mean they could become vulnerable to activities of organised crime groups leading to major law and order problems.
To help counter this, the Australian Government has funded the establishment of the International Deployment Group, which is led by the AFP.
The IDG includes officers from the AFP as well as officers from Australian State and Territory police. It works to promote stability in vulnerable nations in our region by sending personnel to build local capacity for fighting all sorts of crime. IDG officers provide training for local police, as well as infrastructure and operational support.
Currently we have personnel deployed to places like East Timor and the Solomon Islands and our newest mission is already underway in Papua New Guinea.
In addition, in the South Pacific where ATS abuse is causing significant social problems, the AFP is one of 21 member countries of the South Pacific Chiefs of Police Conference working on a combined strategy to address issues of intelligence sharing, public awareness and drug prevention initiatives for the region.
Drug research and evaluation
I mentioned earlier the importance of research in Australia's evidence-based approach to policing illicit drugs.
The AFP is participating in a number of cooperative ventures with Australian research institutions to better understand the environment in which we operate. These have been studying fundamental questions such as the impact of supply reduction on the community and whether law enforcement has any impact on supply.
The results to date have been encouraging, showing our approach today is soundly based.
For example:
Research undertaken in conjunction with the Australian National University in Canberra has proved conclusively that reducing the supply of heroin results in less overdoses, less property crime, more users seeking treatment and significantly, no evidence of transfer to other substances.
In addition, it found that AFP seizures were having a significant impact on supply in the Australian drug market.
The AFP has also been working with the universities to try and calculate the dollar impacts of law enforcement operations across a range of functions, not only to assist with improved resource allocation but also to create added accountability measures for the benefit of government and the community.
One of the ways we measure our performance in drug investigations is through a system we have developed called the Drug Harm Index.
This estimates the potential value to the Australian community of AFP seizures by weighing up likely health, social and economic costs if the drugs had reached the streets.
So far it has found that in the five years to June 2004, AFP seizures saved the Australian public $3.1 billion in drug-related harm.
Further evaluations suggested that for every one dollar invested by the taxpayer in AFP drug operations, we return about $6 to the community in benefits.
As most of you would know, resourcing is an important issue in tackling the range of issues presented by the drug problem.
With so many competing demands in law enforcement today, this is an ongoing challenge for the AFP.
However, in recent years we have implemented a business planning model that is helping us to prioritise investigations so that we can dedicate precious resources to areas where they can have maximum effect - namely the more serious and complex crimes.
This approach is continually monitored and reviewed, but new research endorses our current focus on significant investigations.
These investigations generally involve teams of Federal Agents working over several months or even years on a particular project.
Preliminary research results show returns upwards of $8 to the community for every $1 invested, while small jobs relating to single user attempts to import drugs for personal use typically only return $2 for every $1 invested.
These measures coupled with our intelligence-led approach to fighting drug crime are leading to significant efficiency gains across the organisation. This is having a number of positive flow-on effects, including increased government funding and community confidence in the work we do.
Future challenges
When we think about the future in relation to drug crime, I wonder if in 10 years time we will still be having a drug conference of this nature?
Will we have made significant advances or will we still be talking about the same issues and the same problems? And what will we be doing to change the outcomes?
From an Australian perspective, I believe in the past decade we have made important strides in fighting drug crime, laying important foundations for tackling the problem at its source rather than at its destination.
The process is slow but results are encouraging.
One of the key challenges for us now is to keep this momentum building and to cast the law enforcement net more widely so that we can stay one step ahead of drug criminals rather than one step behind.
We believe policing innovations, particularly in the high tech environment, as well as multilateral approaches - that cross crime fighting disciplines as well as borders - are integral to achieving this.
They will enable us to pool our collective knowledge, resources and experience to tackle the wide range of activities that allow the drug trade to thrive - areas such as organised crime, money laundering and e-crime.
Partnerships based on mutual trust, cooperation and understanding - not just involving law enforcement, but government and non-government organisations, industry and community groups - are essential to this process.
This is the cornerstone of our illicit drug strategy in Australia and one we will continue to pursue in the years to come.
It is a big commitment, but one we believe will pay the most significant dividends 10 years from now.
Thank you.