AUSTRALIA 'IRRESISTIBLE' TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS

The quality of the drug ecstasy
in Australia is deteriorating rapidly, creating a potentially
lucrative market for criminal syndicates supplying pure forms of the
drug, according to a report issued yesterday by the Australian Crime
Commission.

The report, which focuses on organised crime in Australia, quantified
the social cost of underworld activity at $15billion per year, and
warned Mexican drug cartels were gaining a foothold in Australia,
particularly in cocaine importation.

The commission described Australia as an irresistibly lucrative market
for drug traffickers, and said the illicit drug trade remained the
biggest source of income for organised crime syndicates.

"Australians are among the world's highest per capita consumers of
illicit stimulants, and drug prices in Australia far exceed prices
overseas, making domestic drug production and importation highly
profitable," the report said.

But the report found that ecstasy, commonly supplied by European and
Israeli syndicates, as well as outlaw motorcycle gangs, was now in low
demand due to the deteriorating quality of the drug.

The report stated that a global shortage of an ecstasy precursor, the
chemical 3,4 MDP2P, was causing deficiencies in drug quality.

"Latent demand for high quality MDMA remains strong, but the large
number of low purity or inactive tablets sold as MDMA appears to be
resulting in some users moving away from using such tablets."

The report warned that demand for the drug would quickly re-establish
if high purity products reappeared.

Although European syndicates were the dominant importers, West African
criminal groups, which were active in Australia, were also identified
as an emerging supplier of ecstasy.

The report found that cocaine use and cocaine arrests were at
historically high levels, with importation from Central and South
America making the drug widely available in Australia.

The producers and distributors of cocaine were described by the
Australian Crime Commission as "among the most sophisticated,
profitable and powerful criminal networks in the world".

Mexican drug cartels were identified as one of the key players in
cocaine importation, and the report warned that these cartels were
becoming deeply entrenched in Australia and across the globe.

"Mexican drug cartels now have a foothold on most continents and
profits that rival the [gross domestic product] of some of the world's
smaller nations," the report said.

The social costs of cocaine use were estimated to be at about
$300million per year; much lower than opiate use at $4.5billion per
year, and cannabis at $3.1billion per year.

It found that Australian syndicates protected themselves through
counter-intelligence and counter-surveillance operations.

Criminal syndicates also relied on violence, intimidation and
extortion to generate fear and to out-compete legitimate business.

Syndicates were described as being "loose networks of individuals",
rather than the clear, hierarchical structures, defined by a strict
criteria for membership.