AFP on Crime & Drugs
CHAIR: Thanks very much, Commissioner. And thank you, Senator Waters. I will hand the call to Senator Van.
Senator VAN: Commissioner, congratulations on all the great work you're doing. Your opening statement was very comprehensive, and certainly the scale of work and the crimes that you're preventing and disrupting are to be noted. I've got a few questions arising from your opening statement around seizures of drugs et cetera. I noted there were some eye-watering numbers in your statement. What trends are we seeing in the international drug landscape, and what does this mean for Australia?
Mr Kershaw : Truly, for us, the threat of transnational serious organised crime is at its highest level, and that's globally. With our Five Eyes law enforcement partners we're often coordinating and referring different matters to each other, but we're seeing the same increases. Methamphetamine, as you know, can tear down the fabric of regional communities and communities in general.
Senator VAN: And urban.
Mr Kershaw : So it's a real threat to our communities as far as that goes. Unfortunately, we're an attractive market because the price is right and profit margins are high. That's why we're going after outlaw motorcycle gangs and others who peddle in misery. All they want to do is profit from the misery of seeking to do harm to Australians.
Senator VAN: And I'll come to gangs next.
Mr Kershaw : We have a large international network and we know where a lot of these drugs are coming from, and we're working with those international partners. And we continue to work with the Home Affairs team, the whole portfolio, on innovation and different ways we can dismantle these syndicates. They are truly global now. In the old days, you would have an Australian syndicate who was just interested in Australia. Now they've become global, so Australian criminals are not just targeting Australia; they're targeting other markets as well. So, more than ever, we need to partner up with the community, all the different law enforcement agencies and different governments across the globe and work in partnership to do what we can to dismantle and disrupt these syndicates.
Senator VAN: And where are these drugs coming from? What countries?
Mr Kershaw : A lot of our cocaine obviously comes from South America and Mexico, and now methamphetamine is also coming from Mexico. We've also seen South-East Asia and Asia in general with methamphetamine, and then MDMA and others come from Europe. That's often where it's manufactured and where they're actually producing it. Heroin is also coming from that region in Asia and even the Middle East. It continues to be a real challenge for us, but we've been able to deliver what I would say is a bit of an offshore punch on organised crime, and we're going to go after them even further. Some of our capability around seizing assets offshore has improved. We've got greater agreements with different countries now to go after assets offshore—they often move their assets offshore—and also, our partner agencies offshore, more than ever, are really willing to work with us. We have a long history working with a lot of those agencies, so there's a lot of trust between those agencies. But, as Australia continues to be a profitable market, unfortunately the threat's not going to go away.
Senator VAN: You mentioned gangs. Could you please provide us with an update on the focus or priorities of the AFP's National Anti-Gangs Squad?
Mr Kershaw : I might have my colleague Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney answer that.
Mr McCartney : I think the NAGS concept and construct of the AFP has been extremely successful, particularly in working with our state and territory partners, but also with our international partners. The key focus is to hurt, disrupt, and degrade OMCGs in Australia and offshore by seizing drugs and weapons, by seizing cash and by arresting them where we can. Since 2013 there have been over 1,300 arrests, working with our domestic partners, and over $11 million in cash has been seized, again working with our domestic partners and working with them very well. Obviously a key focus is not just domestically, and the commissioner noted the work the AFP undertakes offshore through its international network. There's been a key focus on South-East Asia in terms of targeting OMCGs' impact on the Australian community.
Senator VAN: How many arrests have there been made by the National Anti-Gangs Squad?
Mr McCartney : I think, since the concept, there have been over 1,300 arrests. They have been made by AFP and state and territory police, but under that construct, in terms of the AFP providing a coordinating role in relation to focus on this crime type.
Senator VAN: How many have related to outlaw motorcycle gangs?
Mr McCartney : They all have.
Senator VAN: Wow. Across the country has the number of motorcycle gang members grown in recent years?
Mr McCartney : It has. I think it's fair to say the challenge and the threat is constant in terms of the work that we do in this space.
Senator VAN: So the quicker you lock them up, the faster they are growing or—
Mr McCartney : They're a highly resilient organised crime group which requires a coordinated focus in terms of the work that we do in this space.
Mr Kershaw : What you may find interesting is how they're structured. They have a full logistical arm, they have an administration arm, they have vehicle supply units—they're actually structured around a proper organisation, but it's all for criminal activity and criminal proceeds. We're seeing those structures come forward globally, so they have a global capability. But we know that and we're coming after them, and you'll see some more in this space over the next 12 months.
Senator VAN: What sorts of activities? Is it just around the drugs component or are they involved in other activities?
Mr Kershaw : Fraud. We've even have had child abuse matters, online child abuse, extortion—a whole range—kidnap, robbery, theft, breaking into people's houses. The list just goes on and on.
Senator VAN: Incredible. Keep up the good work there. Can I now take you to some of your work around the dark web. What types of crimes are you seeing being facilitated on the dark web?
Mr Kershaw : Sadly, every kind of crime that you can think of is being committed on the dark web. Recently, we were able to show a certain committee, real-time, that we could get on the web and order a fake vaccine, for example, straight away, for about $200. So it is a criminal marketplace. It's also a way of communicating using encryption and obviously being able to be anonymous and unidentifiable. There's lots of activity that happens—drugs, child abuse, terrorism—again, the list goes on. Most of them are living in that marketplace. There is not anyone, in my view, that is on the dark web for a lawful reason, except police.
Senator VAN: Incredible. What is the growth or scale of use of such technologies for criminal purposes? How big is it?
Mr Kershaw : It's growing, because encryption—I have said this before—is like a shield, and then anonymity is part of their sword. The fact is that they are able to operate anonymously using encryption and other methods to stay and evade law enforcement. So you actually don't even know where syndicates are based, individuals are based and so on. You have seen some arrests recently, even the Australian that was arrested Germany. That was some great work from detectives that had some pretty lucky breaks, but otherwise, technically, it is very difficult to track down people on the dark web.
Senator VAN: That takes me to my next question. What challenges do the dark web and anonymising technologies pose to traditional investigative powers?
Mr McCartney : You spoke before about OMCGs as a crime group. In terms of the crime groups that we investigate, we estimate close to 95 per cent of their communications is encrypted. So the challenge for us is operating in the dark, understanding those crime groups and the criminality that's involved in those crime groups. Obviously, for us there's an important piece of legislation that's before parliament at the minute, the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill. That's incredibly important—we would argue a game changer—in terms of our fight against organised crime on the dark web, our fight against paedophilia and child exploitation on the dark web. In terms of the threat that the commissioner has noted, the threat is real. The powers that are before parliament at the minute, through that legislation, will provide the investigators in AFP and our partner agencies with the tools to undertake this work.
Senator VAN: I will have some further questions about that that we can come back to in my next block.
CHAIR: Thank you very much, Senator Van. I will give the call to Senate Keneally.
Full Committee Transcript here.
