Clan aiding drug imports

CRIME gangs are using “clan” members working in police and customs to help traffic mass consignments of drugs through ports and wharves.

An Australian Federal Police confidential “highly protected” intelligence report — seen by News Corp — has flagged the continued “vulnerability” of Australia’s maritime industry.

The report identified weaknesses along various parts of the import chain from logistics to transport, including brokerages and trucking groups.

But more critically, it has warned gangsters had family or “clan” members working for related government agencies — including the AFP’s own law enforcement ranks and those of state police — who were potentially “sleeper” agents waiting to assist with illegal imports.

Those figures were either blood relatives or very close associates from the same “clans”, notably from Balkan nations.

The report cites “next-generation” extended family members, some willing and others being stood over, entering the criminal milieu as “enablers”.

It also notes the “significant risks to Australia’s national security” posed by the maritimerelated trafficking of biotechnology or weapons for criminal or terrorism purposes if not exposed and prosecuted.

Two recent AFP covert intelligence-led operations identified customs brokers with systems access and the owner of a trucking company with port access that highlighted “entrenched infiltration of logistics and transport industry by Balkan organised crime”.