QUEENSLAND EMERGES AS BIG MARKET FOR COCAINE

QUEENSLAND has emerged as a "significant" market in the booming
cocaine trade to Australia, an internal federal police report has revealed.

Driven by a "generational shift" in drug use, the AFP has found demand
for cocaine has reached unprecedented levels in Australia, giving us
the dubious distinction of now being the world's most lucrative market
for the illicit drug.

The confidential AFP report has warned that international drug cartels
are now specifically targeting Australia for shipments ­ seizures of
which have grown by 20 per cent since 2003.

The Courier-Mail has learned the report highlights market demand as
the factor pushing up the price of the drug on the street.

In the US, a kilogram of cocaine is worth $US30,000-35,000 but in
Australia the price has been pushed to $190,000 a kilogram.

"Across the board in all types of drugs, not just cocaine, the price
paid per kilo in Australia is considerably higher than the price paid
per kilogram anywhere else in the world," report authors concluded.

"So for as long as the Australian user market is that lucrative, the
organised transnational crime syndicate will target us because there
are higher profit margins available to them."

Between 2003 and June 2007, cocaine accounted for about 5 per cent of
drugs seized in Australia but by 2007-08 that rose to 10 per cent and
last financial year to 25 per cent.

The report was handed to AFP chiefs a week ago to "evaluate the
threat".

It came as authorities in Colombia smashed a major international
cartel in the process of making several significant shipments to Australia.

Intelligence from that operation also found Australia was being used
to launder significant amounts of money to fund global drug
distribution enterprises elsewhere. According to the AFP's threat
assessment report, the renewed popularity of cocaine came with
Australia having experienced "a generational shift" away from opiate
drugs such as heroin.

It concluded that while amphetamines such as ice were still popular
with young users, the well publicised risks had turned many off the
drug. The perception of risks associated with cocaine, however, were
seen as lower.

Crucially, AFP analyses of cocaine arrests and seizures showed a
widening problem across the nation.

It found that in the late 1990s, 90-95 per cent of the cocaine usage
market was concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. The two cities today
still play "a major role" but Queensland was now cited as playing a
"significant" role in the cocaine market.

Such was the amount of cocaine allegedly coming our way, one
Australian law enforcer remarked it was expected to be a "white
Christmas" for detections.

AFP Acting Deputy Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg yesterday confirmed a
shift in drug use patterns had been noted.