November 29, 2024
Experts have warned international drug cartels are increasingly turning to new technologies to smuggle contraband into the country, after submarines laden with cocaine and bound for Australia were intercepted by Colombian authorities.
The warnings come after a semi-submersible, crafted from wood and fibreglass and loaded with five tonnes of cocaine, was seized by the Colombian Navy more than 3000km off the country’s coast.
The vessel was one of three intercepted in that part of the Pacific, according to Colombian authorities.
Navy leaders said the vessels’ paths had shown there was a “new route” being exploited by criminals trying to traffic drugs from Colombia to the lucrative Australian market.
Jennifer Parker, an expert associate of the National Security College who previously worked in counter-narcotics with the Navy seizing contraband, said smugglers were constantly looking for new ways to get product into Australia.
“Because of the lucrative nature of (the Australia) market, smugglers are going to try and embrace this evolving technology to be able to get contraband including drugs into Australia,” she said.
“The key thing is that Australian authorities are on top of how these capabilities are developing, and how they’re being used nationally and internationally.”
The remoteness of Australia, she said, remained its biggest asset in preventing contraband from reaching the country.
“It is very difficult to pilot a semi-submersible across the Pacific. (With) the weather (and) the nature of those vessels that would be really difficult,” she said.
It came as the Coalition claimed the watering down of drug laws in some jurisdictions had added extra incentives to smugglers targeting Australia.
“The Albanese government’s passive acceptance of the ACT’s decision to legalise possession of hard drugs has created another pull factor for criminal syndicates to export to Australia,” Shadow Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said.
“We were already a highly profitable market for serious organised crime and drug traffickers and this has made it worse.”
He added it was “no wonder new routes from Colombia and new methods of importation like submarines are being tested by these sophisticated criminal networks”.
“As a landlocked territory the only way to import drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth is by breaching state and international borders and yet Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has done and said nothing,” he said.
Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said the new threat of submarines should be focused on in defence spending.
“The fact that organised crime are investing in these submersibles, shows the emerging nature of the threat,” he said.
“This again brings into question expenditure on enormous traditional platforms – like jet fighters and multi-billion dollar submarines – when a cheap submersible could evade them all.”
Colombian authorities said they had begun to work with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) once the “new route” was discovered, with the submarines becoming more sophisticated and capable of crossing greater distances.
The AFP has a permanent presence in Colombia, with a focus on cutting off illicit drug supplies to Australia.
Minister Burke’s office was contacted for comment.
