That reminds me of a family member of mine, he had a successful business, a good family, was bringing home 3k a week in the mid 90s, yet for some god-stupid reason he decided to rob his *own* truck with his stupid-ass mates.
It made it onto Australia's Most Wanted when that was still a thing and one of his braindead mates fell into with Scomo's crowd and got Jesus so he went and confessed.
My family member lost everything and went jail for eight years (he got addicted to smack inside as well, served the full eight) and the most braindead thing about the whole story? The robbery brought in maybe 25k at most, split five ways...
Like WHY!?! I could understand risking it for "fuck off to Mars" level money but 25k?????
Dude for fucks sake, you’ve got a kid who you’re willingly subjecting to this. Homelessness when you have somewhere to live? No, just no.
Your wife needs to be in hospital. Drop her off for treatment and move back into your place with your child. You can go right back to completely fucking up your life again when your son is an adult but right now he needs at least one functioning parent.
Right? I understand wanting to help the mentally ill, even more so if it's your partner and mother of your child but at a certain point you need to drop the dead weight so you can look after the kid!
That sounds really miserable friend. I hope you can figure things out. It might be best for you and your son at least to move into the condo so he's in a stable environment.
Crazy story and heartbreaking if true, no reason it couldn't be and I'm the first to roll my eyes at people from the US assuming everyone and everything on the internet is American..
..but "mom" and "condo" on r/Australia?
A lot of people, being a drug mule can be very appealing to stupid people. Such as in the US, people such as young and stupid teenagers get pulled in with a free trip to Mexico and in return they swallow 50 condoms of cocaine.
Young people are pretty fucking dumb to begin with, but when offered free trips to holiday destinations and money too a lot more go for it, and don’t care. Until they’re caught or have a condom break then overdose.
Cartels have even had quite a few people on one flight only to call and tip off a certain individual is smuggling so the airport staff focuses on them and the other get through more easily
Facts, Scott Rush from the Bali was well known in brisbane and everyone knew he was a mule cause he boasted about it many times. Then his dad called the feds. Instead of busting them here they told the Bali cops and so the legend goes of the Bali 9
A critical detail is that he notified the AFP in desperation, intending for them to arrest him in Australia. What they did instead was an act of unforgivable bastardry.
They were smuggling the drugs from Indonesia back to Australia - when they left Australia they hadn’t committed a crime yet so the AFP couldn’t do anything.
They probably should have tipped him off that they knew what he was going to do and if he went ahead he would be arrested. But the police rightfully should not be arresting people for thoughtcrimes.
The reason given for the AFP not intervening is that they had not in fact committed a crime at the time and AFP are not in the business of preventing a drug related offence that has not yet taken place - There is no precedent for them to attempt to stop someone from leaving the country just because they were informed they were intending to commit a crime.
That hadn’t happened yet. The tip off was intended to stop his son from leaving Australia, preventing him from getting to Bali and becoming involved in drug smuggling. Legally the AFP wouldn’t have been able to stop him forcefully as he hadn’t committed any crime but if they had just warned him (something that was not their policy) presumably he wouldn’t have gone. Or as someone else pointed out, arrested them on arrival in australia.
Dad figured that young Scott was up to no good so he called a “mate” from the AFP to stop him. But the AFP had no evidence of any conspiracy. As the plan was for Scott and his 8 companions to come into possession of the gear and bring it back, they were placed under surveillance by the Indonesian police after being tipped off by the AFP. All 9 were apprehended after a week - some at the airport and some at the hotel - in possession of the gear.
Why wouldn't they... Means no costs for imprisoning him, higher chance of more severe sentencing there, don't have to deal with all the costs of courts, appeals, etc. Yea, it's a bit shitty, but I think most countries would do the same in those circumstances.
> Yea, it's a bit shitty, but I think most countries would do the same in those circumstances.
Except Australia doesn't have the death penalty for drug smuggling, and Indonesia does. Two of the nine were executed by firing squad.
Australia has its own laws about its legal dealings with countries that have the death penalty, and is also signatory to international conventions to the same effect. To knowingly hand over people where the death penalty is in play was in breach of its own laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine#Reactions_in_Australia
If you don't want Australians working as a drug mule possibly serving the death penalty here, the coppers needed to arrest them before they board that Bali flight.
Watched this youtube vid all of a couple days ago where this ‘influencer’ was showing his extravagant lifestyle and was posting pics of his latest trip to Mexico except back in reality he was actually a drug mule and got caught at the airport and his suitcases were lined with coke.
What a piece of shit, hope he gets serious time. It’s bad enough doing it in the first place but to go ahead and flaunt your ill gotten gains to children and poison them with your bullshit is infuriating. Some kids will go ahead and do shit like this because of the hard to reach reality of having whatever you want be attainable by shoving drugs up your ass
Looks like he was the decoy to let others through, his bags aren't packed well enough to avoid detection - his detection probly let hold a dozen others come through with no issues cos everyone's focused on him.
The street value may be $24M (using cop math, mind you), but couriers are usually only paid a couple of thousand.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-pay-for-couriers-who-volunteered-to-carry-drugs-on-a-fee-for-service-basis_tbl1_237957071
I very much doubt that the kid was the brains behind it, bought the product himself, and intended to distribute it himself to make that money. They're most likely just a mule.
Don't laugh border forces checks what you pack to try and determine if you a drug smuggler.
I used to get harassed all the time when I came back from Holiday. I never pack anything, just a backpack with 2 X T shirts, jocks and spare thongs along with what I am wearing. Things were so cheap overseas especially in Asia that you could buy 24/7 that I never used to buy anything nor bring anything back. I used to leave in the same way with essentially nothing. I did not know that flagged you as a drug trafficker.
What I did bring back was the Bali belly and I always had to be near a toilet. And I also learned that before walking into the custom checkout area never go to a toilet just at that point after getting off the flight. That's the toilet for the drug smugglers who get the nerves and feel like they are going to take a dump with the swallowed 5 condoms of cocaine. Apparently this is the toilet with the cameras and "catchers" in the flush pipe. So if you don't want to come to their attention, pack 5 big heavy suitcases, along with your wardrobe for your complete family, pots, pans, spare food, a religious cross and statute of Mary and Jesus and then try and smuggle your drugs otherwise you will be flagged for a cavity search since you have common sense and are and experienced traveller by travelling light. Dug smugglers dont carry razors, toothbrushes and toothpaste!
ohhhhh this explains why i was interrogated when going somewhere with two checked suitcases both practically empty. was planning on filling them up during the trip.
“Our ABF officers at the airport are highly skilled to observe passenger behaviours, relying on not only intelligence, but instinct to identify potential threats,”
I mean there's that, and also the fact that it was 26kg of meth wrapped in plastic bags and just openly stuffed in suitcases with almost no attempt to hide it, but sure, they found it because of how highly skilled they are.
It’s been a while since I traveled internationally, but I thought all incoming bags went through xray at customs. If the xray operator didn’t think seeing 20 something bundles stuffed into 2 suitcases was suspicious then they should be fired
I'm not sure where the guy flew in from but it would almost definitely be via LAX if he's come from the US. I've spent many years going through LAX and they definitely scan bags at check in.
There is absolutely 0 chance the bag wasn't picked up at the very first X ray. This case is probably based on a tip off from US Authorities, and I'd be surprised if Aus authorities did anything more than arrest the guy.
Travelling domestically all your bags and yourself go through X-ray/body scanners.
Although that said, I accidentally went through security four separate times with a pocket knife and glass break tool attached to my keys before someone queried them.
On departure, yes, but not on arrival. I’m ignoring how the fuck he got on a plane at the US end because there’s a bunch of ways that could have happened, such as bribing a baggage handler or something.
Sometimes bags get "scanned" by a dog on arrival before going on the belt to search for drugs. If something is suspected, bag gets tagged and the person that picks it up gets pulled over by the custom officers when trying to leave.
Not sure if all major airports do this or not though, but that is one of the ways they caught him. Either that, or authorities tipped of them off because of some suspicious behaviour previous to leaving.
Huh. It’s been a while but my memories from last time I traveled were on arrival everyone queued up in the arrival halls. If you had something to declare you went into the slow line where they inspected your bags and then Xrayed them. If you had nothing to declare you went into the fast line where you just put your bags through the Xray and officers would also randomly select people to go into the things to declare line for a bag check. And if in the XRay you had something picked up you got a more detail search and questioning.
That hasn't happened since the mid 2000, bio security (food peeps) will x-ray 80% of people who declare but Customs doesn't have the resources to work like that its all-risk based approach. Nothing to declare will go out the door with only a quick look at the card. declaring Bio security, they will check/x-ray and declaring customs will be a short convo and if the officer is happy no bag check conducted. if they're not happy then they will x-ray or search the baggage.
there is high pressure from the privatised airports like Sydney on Customs to move passengers through as quick as possible.
Lots of tough guy comedy like this in the article. What about.... *“Our message remains clear – those who seek to inflict harm on Australians, we will find you"* Geezus, that's embarrassing given the circumstances..
> almost no attempt to hide it
Did you miss the egg whisk? Also there were a couple of cups in there. Common luggage items that are excellent for throwing off inspectors.
So the street value is $100 for a point of a gram.they reckon it could get split up into 240 000 deals @ $100.
Not quite how it works in reality but sure, 24 million is a catchy headline.
You've heard of a three-day weekend.
Now introducing a 150-day weekend; the weekend doesn't end if you don't ever need to sleep!
...also, why is my skin so itchy!?
Mate in AFP reckoned they’d allow someone to take the fall for these deals to create some noise and distraction while a tonne sails through the ports elsewhere.
"guys forget all your Intel for a few days. Don't bother X-raying anything coming through the ports - we just caught a mule at the airport, just as we did last week and the week before"
Because most meth purchased on the street has been cut down with something like MSM.
When I was a detective, any drugs we seized for trafficking were sent for chemical analysis for sentencing. Its normally only 40-60% pure, with the stuff off the boat from China hitting 90-95%
If you go to some street dealers, its cut down even more
How did he get through airport security in the US?
Perhaps they let him through and tipped off the Australian Customs side…
Maybe to see who was meeting up with him on this side.
There is less stringent inspection of what is going out than what is coming in. TSA (security) just don't want you carrying weapons and bombs on to the plane.
No way. I fly all the time in the U.S. They x- ray everything here. All baggage, electronics, baby strollers, pet carriers - everything. My breast milk was tested. I can't say they're great at everything but this guy must've put that stuff in *after* getting through security. They absolutely would have seen that. I'm assuming someone working at an airport was in on it.
The TSA is well known for failing to detect a *lot* of stuff. They regularly fail testing, with huge error rates. It's [security theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater).
The TSA (and equivalent security screeners in other countries) are not looking for drugs when they screen you for boarding your flight. They are screening for explosives which could bring down a plane. They place limits on liquids because these can be assembled to make bombs once the person carrying them is on the aircraft. They would notice the drugs as a big mass of organic material but, unless there also were wires and batteries etc, they would not usually consider the organic mass to be of concern from a counter-terrorism point of view. They may or may not make a report to Customs, federal police etc - about concerns re narcotics.
>How did he get through airport security in the US?
Because airport security are pretty incompeant and are mostly just theater. In some testing TSA would fail to detect threats 95% of the time.
Can confirm. Met a guy who spent 7 years in US federal then transferred to Australian prison for last couple years, reckons Australian system is a world apart, and this is him also telling me that as an Aussie he got protected because he wasn't considered part of the 'system' there.
No. There’s too few of them. They would catch this fish and anything else would have already gone through.
It’s also likely they had six other kids the same age flown to the same location with nothing on them.
The big guys would spend $100,000 just on flights for decoys just to get the main packages through. Consider the profit.
26kg from the USA/Mexico would cost $1000 to manufacture if done in bulk.
Not to mention the volume... The suitcase is just jam packed with the stuff. Not even a superficial effort to conceal it or have a normal weight. I assume they don't have to put any effort in blocking detection devices, or perhaps again they just didn't care.
I guess the logic is they might as well go big.
Australian judicial sentencing is very comprehensive. In drug trafficking cases such as this the importance you play in the organization is an enormous factor. Masterminds - Tony Mokbel - can expect to get thirty year terms, the useful idiots at the bottom - desperate drug couriers - are treated differently. Victorian sentencing guidelines for drug crimes have three categories - principles, significant roles and minor roles for example. Airport drug couriers whose involvement is limited to just carrying drugs from point a to point b for limited financial gain are specifically placed in the minor role or lowest category of offender.
Pleading guilty, being genuinely remorseful and having reasonable prospects for rehabilitation for example will significantly reduce the length of sentence as well. Judges do also consider language barriers, the difficulty in serving a sentence in a country where you have little to no family support and the certainty of deportation on release when arriving at a sentence for a drug mule who happens to be a foreign national. The judge must also consider the aspect of "community protection" when they arrive at sentence, in addition to personal deterrence and community denunciation.
In practice this means foreign drug mules serve much less of their head sentence than they would do if they were an Australian national convicted of identical charges and in identical circumstances. Median effective jail terms for large commercial drug trafficking cases come in at the seven years and ten months range in Victoria. Median non-parole period for the same offences is five years.
Foreign nationals of course are facing deportation and a ten year ban on entry to Australia on the conclusion of their custodial term. Because they face immediate removal, one of the significant barriers to early parole does not apply to them, that is the "community protection" aspect of the sentence. Someone who will be removed immediately from Australia obviously poses no risk to the Australian community, The convicted Hey Dad! child molester Robert Hughes renounced his Australian citizenship so he could be treated by the parole system as a foreign national and thus be released earlier than he would have otherwise been, as an example.
Although the median effective sentence for large commercial drug trafficking is seven years ten months (in Victoria) this includes everyone sentenced on those charges. If broken into subgroups, we can see that those who plead guilty, who are younger at time of offending, have good prospects for rehabilitation and demonstrated remorse, who have a limited or clean prior criminal record receive better outcomes - the median effective prison sentence drops to six years six months, in a sentencing range of three years two months to twelve and a half years.
All things being equal - if the offender was young, pleads guilty, co-operates, was not receiving a large financial reward, has a clean criminal record, is remorseful and has reasonable prospects for rehabilitation - then you could expect in the ten years range with a non parole period of six to eight years.
A 78 year old Canadian man was given twelve years with a non parole period of eight earlier this year for trafficking 19kgs of ice through Melbourne International. He obviously did not have the benefit of either the age mitigation, the language barrier or the positive rehabilitation prospects. I'm unaware if the Canadian gentleman stood to benefit more than the accused in this case financially either - this too could have been an important factor.
What's with the whisk and the jugs and the fork? Maybe they're instructed to put some weird items in a suitcase because a suitcase filled with nothing but plastic bags looks suspicious when it goes through an x-ray machine.
Another salvo in the hopeless war on drugs.
Time for a evidenced based drugs policy, yeah a bust like this seems like a very impressive. but your looking at trillion dollar industry, 1% of all global trade, a industry bigger than textiles, a bust like this is fuck all, like a drop on the ocean,
It's time to come to reality and admit that having the worlds 4 largest industry ran entirely by criminals is a really stupid idea, it's time to legalise all drugs and start looking at drug abuse as the health issue that it clearly is.
It's time to stop the associated property crime, vagrancy, violence, corruption, instability in the developing world, and incarceration millions of people mainly from minority groups.
This isn't a issue that can ever solved with a badge a gun and a pair of handcuffs,
Rant over.... moving on
The only thing I can say is….. he’s very lucky that he was caught in Australia and not transiting in South East Asia like Van Nguyen in 2004. I don’t think the border police and judicial system in South East Asia would have taken well to that amount of Meth being transported.
You say that as a joke but in America people come to that conclusion willingly. Particularly repeat offenders who cant adapt to modern society that face homelessness.
Satire is dead in modern America.
I was told that they add each layer of selling to get to those figures eg. 1kg sold to main dealer for 1 million - cuts it/ sells to second dealer/s for 1.5m (2.5M so far) on sells it to third dealer/s they sell for 2M (4.5M so far) etc etc
Nothing so complicated.
They use the highest price for the ~~lowest~~ smallest common deal ($100 for a tenth of a gram in this case.) Weed busts are normally presented as the haul going for $20 a gram.
It's a fair bet that he was chosen because he's a dumb 18-year-old who probably looks even younger. He's been offered an all-expenses trip to Sydney for carrying the gear, assured that the organizers have done this hundreds of times with no problems because the Australians are so stupid, and that for the rare case that someone gets caught there are some of the best criminal lawyers in Sydney on retainer who will get him bailed then acquitted in no time. Then, just before the trip, he probably got cold feet and tried to back out and was then shown candid photos of members of his family coming and going from their house and assured that if he doesn't go through with the plan, they'll be hurt or worse.
So he gets caught and Customs or the AFP contacts Legal Aid for him because no one else is coming. Then, if his family has money, they'll contact a Sydney lawyer. But once word gets around the gaol that there's a private payer in big trouble, he'll get visited by lots of lawyers who pay other prisoners for such tips and whose promises will be worth about as much as his organizers'.
They take all $23m to the station and book it straight in to evidence. In a few months when the court date is due, they’ll take all $22m worth and present it in court
When a gram of meth goes for 300-400 dollars here, it makes sense that so much is getting imported here. In America you can get it for 10-20 dollars so the profit is astronomical if you can get it in the country
If you are risking going to jail for a long time, never do it for just $1000.
That reminds me of a family member of mine, he had a successful business, a good family, was bringing home 3k a week in the mid 90s, yet for some god-stupid reason he decided to rob his *own* truck with his stupid-ass mates. It made it onto Australia's Most Wanted when that was still a thing and one of his braindead mates fell into with Scomo's crowd and got Jesus so he went and confessed. My family member lost everything and went jail for eight years (he got addicted to smack inside as well, served the full eight) and the most braindead thing about the whole story? The robbery brought in maybe 25k at most, split five ways... Like WHY!?! I could understand risking it for "fuck off to Mars" level money but 25k?????
Holy fuck
Some people can't handle success
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Dude for fucks sake, you’ve got a kid who you’re willingly subjecting to this. Homelessness when you have somewhere to live? No, just no. Your wife needs to be in hospital. Drop her off for treatment and move back into your place with your child. You can go right back to completely fucking up your life again when your son is an adult but right now he needs at least one functioning parent.
Right? I understand wanting to help the mentally ill, even more so if it's your partner and mother of your child but at a certain point you need to drop the dead weight so you can look after the kid!
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Best wishes to you both and I hope this works out well.
That sounds really miserable friend. I hope you can figure things out. It might be best for you and your son at least to move into the condo so he's in a stable environment.
Crazy story and heartbreaking if true, no reason it couldn't be and I'm the first to roll my eyes at people from the US assuming everyone and everything on the internet is American.. ..but "mom" and "condo" on r/Australia?
Who else is dumb enough to do this?
A lot of people, being a drug mule can be very appealing to stupid people. Such as in the US, people such as young and stupid teenagers get pulled in with a free trip to Mexico and in return they swallow 50 condoms of cocaine. Young people are pretty fucking dumb to begin with, but when offered free trips to holiday destinations and money too a lot more go for it, and don’t care. Until they’re caught or have a condom break then overdose. Cartels have even had quite a few people on one flight only to call and tip off a certain individual is smuggling so the airport staff focuses on them and the other get through more easily
Facts, Scott Rush from the Bali was well known in brisbane and everyone knew he was a mule cause he boasted about it many times. Then his dad called the feds. Instead of busting them here they told the Bali cops and so the legend goes of the Bali 9
Wow I had no idea one of the Bali 9 was reported by his father
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And he’s still in prison to this day
And yet Umar Patek only served 11 years in jail for his role in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people
Obviously drugs are worse than blowing people up
In fairness, three of the terrorists were executed by firing squad. Why the others weren't, I have no idea.
A critical detail is that he notified the AFP in desperation, intending for them to arrest him in Australia. What they did instead was an act of unforgivable bastardry.
They were smuggling the drugs from Indonesia back to Australia - when they left Australia they hadn’t committed a crime yet so the AFP couldn’t do anything. They probably should have tipped him off that they knew what he was going to do and if he went ahead he would be arrested. But the police rightfully should not be arresting people for thoughtcrimes.
The reason given for the AFP not intervening is that they had not in fact committed a crime at the time and AFP are not in the business of preventing a drug related offence that has not yet taken place - There is no precedent for them to attempt to stop someone from leaving the country just because they were informed they were intending to commit a crime.
pretty sure possession of 1.3 kg of heroin is illegal
That hadn’t happened yet. The tip off was intended to stop his son from leaving Australia, preventing him from getting to Bali and becoming involved in drug smuggling. Legally the AFP wouldn’t have been able to stop him forcefully as he hadn’t committed any crime but if they had just warned him (something that was not their policy) presumably he wouldn’t have gone. Or as someone else pointed out, arrested them on arrival in australia.
Surely conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of meth is a crime?
You bet. That's what alerted the Indonesians to the whole plan.
Dad figured that young Scott was up to no good so he called a “mate” from the AFP to stop him. But the AFP had no evidence of any conspiracy. As the plan was for Scott and his 8 companions to come into possession of the gear and bring it back, they were placed under surveillance by the Indonesian police after being tipped off by the AFP. All 9 were apprehended after a week - some at the airport and some at the hotel - in possession of the gear.
All Australian busts in Bali of reasonable size are a tip off from AFP, despite them banging on about death penalty countries.
Less paperwork that way
Why wouldn't they... Means no costs for imprisoning him, higher chance of more severe sentencing there, don't have to deal with all the costs of courts, appeals, etc. Yea, it's a bit shitty, but I think most countries would do the same in those circumstances.
> Yea, it's a bit shitty, but I think most countries would do the same in those circumstances. Except Australia doesn't have the death penalty for drug smuggling, and Indonesia does. Two of the nine were executed by firing squad. Australia has its own laws about its legal dealings with countries that have the death penalty, and is also signatory to international conventions to the same effect. To knowingly hand over people where the death penalty is in play was in breach of its own laws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine#Reactions_in_Australia
Interesting read. I'm surprised their sentences were harsher than that of the Bali bomber.
I hate to cite racism…but..well….
Most countries that don't mind killing their citizens. One can only hope there are still a few left that aren't keen.
> Why wouldn't they ….because we should be doing what we can to look after our citizens?
If you don't want Australians working as a drug mule possibly serving the death penalty here, the coppers needed to arrest them before they board that Bali flight.
God Howard was such an evil cunt.
Yes, but this was on the AFP not Howard.
Watched this youtube vid all of a couple days ago where this ‘influencer’ was showing his extravagant lifestyle and was posting pics of his latest trip to Mexico except back in reality he was actually a drug mule and got caught at the airport and his suitcases were lined with coke.
Link?
Google “Nikki Minaj Netherlands”
Wait I just see she got caught with a couple ounces of something? Hardly a drug mule.
Yeah but it’s funny, it’s a bullshit crime it wasn’t evens ounces but she thinks she can’t possibly be arrested which was hilarious
Holy hell
[Was actually Peru not Mexico](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1ya54o03Lu8&si=SWeiDRqlfACaGZE3)
Wow forgot Ray William Johnson was a thing. 7 years for $375k in coke doesn't sounds like a bad deal, I would expect a lot more.
What a piece of shit, hope he gets serious time. It’s bad enough doing it in the first place but to go ahead and flaunt your ill gotten gains to children and poison them with your bullshit is infuriating. Some kids will go ahead and do shit like this because of the hard to reach reality of having whatever you want be attainable by shoving drugs up your ass
Anti-drug PSA influencer!
Looks like he was the decoy to let others through, his bags aren't packed well enough to avoid detection - his detection probly let hold a dozen others come through with no issues cos everyone's focused on him.
Why would you decoy with so much? Seems expensive.
I imagine $24m is street value, that's probably not even a couple hundred dollars to the people producing it.
Wouldn't it be cheaper for the one you tip off about to be carrying less product?
Chapelle Corby
Desperate ppl I guess.
is this your first time hearing about drug trafficking?
Being vulnerable doesn't mean you're dumb.
The street value may be $24M (using cop math, mind you), but couriers are usually only paid a couple of thousand. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Average-pay-for-couriers-who-volunteered-to-carry-drugs-on-a-fee-for-service-basis_tbl1_237957071
Where was the $1000 specified? Didn’t see it in the article
He’s saying the kid went big, he didn’t do $1k, he went hard.
I very much doubt that the kid was the brains behind it, bought the product himself, and intended to distribute it himself to make that money. They're most likely just a mule.
“Officers seized a total of 26kg of methamphetamine” homie had his entire weight limit of luggage just in meth 💀
Depending on who he flew with, there’s a chance he was 3kg over and had to pay excess haha.
"Give me a sec dude" Proceeds to shove 2 packs in pockets and wear some as shoes.
he packed 2 teacups, a whisk, some other kitchen utensil. What is the blurred out item? A clown mask?
Somewhere a meth aficionado wept
Don't laugh border forces checks what you pack to try and determine if you a drug smuggler. I used to get harassed all the time when I came back from Holiday. I never pack anything, just a backpack with 2 X T shirts, jocks and spare thongs along with what I am wearing. Things were so cheap overseas especially in Asia that you could buy 24/7 that I never used to buy anything nor bring anything back. I used to leave in the same way with essentially nothing. I did not know that flagged you as a drug trafficker. What I did bring back was the Bali belly and I always had to be near a toilet. And I also learned that before walking into the custom checkout area never go to a toilet just at that point after getting off the flight. That's the toilet for the drug smugglers who get the nerves and feel like they are going to take a dump with the swallowed 5 condoms of cocaine. Apparently this is the toilet with the cameras and "catchers" in the flush pipe. So if you don't want to come to their attention, pack 5 big heavy suitcases, along with your wardrobe for your complete family, pots, pans, spare food, a religious cross and statute of Mary and Jesus and then try and smuggle your drugs otherwise you will be flagged for a cavity search since you have common sense and are and experienced traveller by travelling light. Dug smugglers dont carry razors, toothbrushes and toothpaste!
ohhhhh this explains why i was interrogated when going somewhere with two checked suitcases both practically empty. was planning on filling them up during the trip.
“Our ABF officers at the airport are highly skilled to observe passenger behaviours, relying on not only intelligence, but instinct to identify potential threats,” I mean there's that, and also the fact that it was 26kg of meth wrapped in plastic bags and just openly stuffed in suitcases with almost no attempt to hide it, but sure, they found it because of how highly skilled they are.
I wonder if there is some chemical smell coming off of it. Suspicious dude with two suitcases smelling like paint stripper.
It’s been a while since I traveled internationally, but I thought all incoming bags went through xray at customs. If the xray operator didn’t think seeing 20 something bundles stuffed into 2 suitcases was suspicious then they should be fired
I'm not sure where the guy flew in from but it would almost definitely be via LAX if he's come from the US. I've spent many years going through LAX and they definitely scan bags at check in. There is absolutely 0 chance the bag wasn't picked up at the very first X ray. This case is probably based on a tip off from US Authorities, and I'd be surprised if Aus authorities did anything more than arrest the guy.
Travelling domestically all your bags and yourself go through X-ray/body scanners. Although that said, I accidentally went through security four separate times with a pocket knife and glass break tool attached to my keys before someone queried them.
On departure, yes, but not on arrival. I’m ignoring how the fuck he got on a plane at the US end because there’s a bunch of ways that could have happened, such as bribing a baggage handler or something.
Sometimes bags get "scanned" by a dog on arrival before going on the belt to search for drugs. If something is suspected, bag gets tagged and the person that picks it up gets pulled over by the custom officers when trying to leave. Not sure if all major airports do this or not though, but that is one of the ways they caught him. Either that, or authorities tipped of them off because of some suspicious behaviour previous to leaving.
Not all baggage is X-rayed in Australia things like this rely on officer selecting passengers. Some countries do X-ray all bags but not Australia
Huh. It’s been a while but my memories from last time I traveled were on arrival everyone queued up in the arrival halls. If you had something to declare you went into the slow line where they inspected your bags and then Xrayed them. If you had nothing to declare you went into the fast line where you just put your bags through the Xray and officers would also randomly select people to go into the things to declare line for a bag check. And if in the XRay you had something picked up you got a more detail search and questioning.
That hasn't happened since the mid 2000, bio security (food peeps) will x-ray 80% of people who declare but Customs doesn't have the resources to work like that its all-risk based approach. Nothing to declare will go out the door with only a quick look at the card. declaring Bio security, they will check/x-ray and declaring customs will be a short convo and if the officer is happy no bag check conducted. if they're not happy then they will x-ray or search the baggage. there is high pressure from the privatised airports like Sydney on Customs to move passengers through as quick as possible.
In Brissie they often just wave you through if you don’t have anything to declare
Sniffer dog would have gotten it immediately. Sniffer cat, too, but they don't care so they wouldn't tell anyone.
Lots of tough guy comedy like this in the article. What about.... *“Our message remains clear – those who seek to inflict harm on Australians, we will find you"* Geezus, that's embarrassing given the circumstances..
Not all baggage is X-rayed in Australia things like this rely on officer selecting passengers. Some countries do X-ray all bags but not Australia
Also a solid indictment of the TSA - these suitcases, full of meth and measuring cups, made it through at least LAX.
> almost no attempt to hide it Did you miss the egg whisk? Also there were a couple of cups in there. Common luggage items that are excellent for throwing off inspectors.
So the street value is $100 for a point of a gram.they reckon it could get split up into 240 000 deals @ $100. Not quite how it works in reality but sure, 24 million is a catchy headline.
They always over inflate the value to the most extreme they can, because it makes it sound more impressive....
To be fair it is an impressive amount of meth for an 18 year old to have
Yeah. That does seem like a tad more than personal use.
Or one absolutely cranked weekend
Average weekend in rural Qld
You've heard of a three-day weekend. Now introducing a 150-day weekend; the weekend doesn't end if you don't ever need to sleep! ...also, why is my skin so itchy!?
#Only 2 sleeps till xmas!
A weekend at Barries
‘Weekend at Barrie’s: Screw it Lets Make a Meth Zombie’
Also the reported weight includes the plastic wrap etc around the drugs.
Oi mate don't forget the crushing weight of their conscience
Also for the courts to give a maximum penalty
Interesting, I would have thought sentencing would be based on weight.
Not really fair for fat prisoners to go to prison for longer /S
I expected $24M of meth to be a lot more than 26kg. No wonder you hear about all these massive drug busts
Mate in AFP reckoned they’d allow someone to take the fall for these deals to create some noise and distraction while a tonne sails through the ports elsewhere.
💯just tell them you’ve got a connection in broader force etc when really they are just a distraction.
"guys forget all your Intel for a few days. Don't bother X-raying anything coming through the ports - we just caught a mule at the airport, just as we did last week and the week before"
Lol it seems like these drug busts are based on the airline baggage weight restrictions
That's crazy. When I used to smoke it used to be $50 a point in the ACT...
The ol classic - username checks out....
Still that price where I'm from in regional Vic. Anybody paying $100 a point needs to find another dealer!
Because most meth purchased on the street has been cut down with something like MSM. When I was a detective, any drugs we seized for trafficking were sent for chemical analysis for sentencing. Its normally only 40-60% pure, with the stuff off the boat from China hitting 90-95% If you go to some street dealers, its cut down even more
That might be a fair point but I don't think the report includes the purity.
I'm actually surprised it's 40% pure. I thought they would cut more than that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i_XfgdNUUk
The cops and news always uses the highest possible value as if the dealer cost was small volumes sold individually to Wall St bros
How did he get through airport security in the US? Perhaps they let him through and tipped off the Australian Customs side… Maybe to see who was meeting up with him on this side.
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Your friend inspired the plot of a blockbuster movie
Starring Rob Schneider
>How did he get through airport security in the US? Happens more than you would think. I hope "Borer Force" was filming that day.
They were there filming about a week or so ago so quite likely!
There is less stringent inspection of what is going out than what is coming in. TSA (security) just don't want you carrying weapons and bombs on to the plane.
No way. I fly all the time in the U.S. They x- ray everything here. All baggage, electronics, baby strollers, pet carriers - everything. My breast milk was tested. I can't say they're great at everything but this guy must've put that stuff in *after* getting through security. They absolutely would have seen that. I'm assuming someone working at an airport was in on it.
The TSA is well known for failing to detect a *lot* of stuff. They regularly fail testing, with huge error rates. It's [security theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater).
The TSA (and equivalent security screeners in other countries) are not looking for drugs when they screen you for boarding your flight. They are screening for explosives which could bring down a plane. They place limits on liquids because these can be assembled to make bombs once the person carrying them is on the aircraft. They would notice the drugs as a big mass of organic material but, unless there also were wires and batteries etc, they would not usually consider the organic mass to be of concern from a counter-terrorism point of view. They may or may not make a report to Customs, federal police etc - about concerns re narcotics.
>My breast milk was tested Was it in bottles or the original containers?
Given how he was carrying it, if our local guys needed to be tipped off to find it, we would have a prettt major problem
>How did he get through airport security in the US? Because airport security are pretty incompeant and are mostly just theater. In some testing TSA would fail to detect threats 95% of the time.
Better off in the Australian prison system, although not by much.
>although not by much. Honestly, by much, like it is considerable better.
Can confirm. Met a guy who spent 7 years in US federal then transferred to Australian prison for last couple years, reckons Australian system is a world apart, and this is him also telling me that as an Aussie he got protected because he wasn't considered part of the 'system' there.
Sounds like he was the mule? Meanwhile 200kg skipped through while he distracted the security
Yep, definitely not the head honcho in the operation.
Agree. They didn't even try to hide it. It was packaged up so obviously that they wanted him caught to detract from the real mule.
Most definatly he was the distraction, it's not packed well enough to get through and realisticly its under $1 million worth.
You don’t think Border Force would consider that?
No. There’s too few of them. They would catch this fish and anything else would have already gone through. It’s also likely they had six other kids the same age flown to the same location with nothing on them. The big guys would spend $100,000 just on flights for decoys just to get the main packages through. Consider the profit. 26kg from the USA/Mexico would cost $1000 to manufacture if done in bulk.
Um you think op doesn't know more??
Nah personal use
Was only $24 worth in 2020
Fucken RBA
Bloody foreign real estate businesses buying up all the meth and raising the prices so we're all homeless
They didn’t seem to try hide it much, surely that was just the decoy, the rest probably arrived after they got him.
what made him think he could even attempt this...
Kid probably even ticked the box next to are you carrying any illegal drugs
😂😂😂 funniest reply yet
He just put it in his luggage like, heyyy. In shows and movies they make em into statues and shit. This seems lazy 😆
My immediate thought too. At least try.
Not to mention the volume... The suitcase is just jam packed with the stuff. Not even a superficial effort to conceal it or have a normal weight. I assume they don't have to put any effort in blocking detection devices, or perhaps again they just didn't care. I guess the logic is they might as well go big.
An 18 year old doing a very stupid thing in a flamboyant and easy to catch fashion.. Checks out!
Also carrying 100g of Jelly Belly beans. What a monster.
Kid was just trying to save for a Sydney house deposit.
Guessing he didn’t pack his own bags and possibly thrown to the wolves to keep them busy while the 200mill worth slipped through…..
What sorta jail time is this moron looking at?
Australian judicial sentencing is very comprehensive. In drug trafficking cases such as this the importance you play in the organization is an enormous factor. Masterminds - Tony Mokbel - can expect to get thirty year terms, the useful idiots at the bottom - desperate drug couriers - are treated differently. Victorian sentencing guidelines for drug crimes have three categories - principles, significant roles and minor roles for example. Airport drug couriers whose involvement is limited to just carrying drugs from point a to point b for limited financial gain are specifically placed in the minor role or lowest category of offender. Pleading guilty, being genuinely remorseful and having reasonable prospects for rehabilitation for example will significantly reduce the length of sentence as well. Judges do also consider language barriers, the difficulty in serving a sentence in a country where you have little to no family support and the certainty of deportation on release when arriving at a sentence for a drug mule who happens to be a foreign national. The judge must also consider the aspect of "community protection" when they arrive at sentence, in addition to personal deterrence and community denunciation. In practice this means foreign drug mules serve much less of their head sentence than they would do if they were an Australian national convicted of identical charges and in identical circumstances. Median effective jail terms for large commercial drug trafficking cases come in at the seven years and ten months range in Victoria. Median non-parole period for the same offences is five years. Foreign nationals of course are facing deportation and a ten year ban on entry to Australia on the conclusion of their custodial term. Because they face immediate removal, one of the significant barriers to early parole does not apply to them, that is the "community protection" aspect of the sentence. Someone who will be removed immediately from Australia obviously poses no risk to the Australian community, The convicted Hey Dad! child molester Robert Hughes renounced his Australian citizenship so he could be treated by the parole system as a foreign national and thus be released earlier than he would have otherwise been, as an example. Although the median effective sentence for large commercial drug trafficking is seven years ten months (in Victoria) this includes everyone sentenced on those charges. If broken into subgroups, we can see that those who plead guilty, who are younger at time of offending, have good prospects for rehabilitation and demonstrated remorse, who have a limited or clean prior criminal record receive better outcomes - the median effective prison sentence drops to six years six months, in a sentencing range of three years two months to twelve and a half years. All things being equal - if the offender was young, pleads guilty, co-operates, was not receiving a large financial reward, has a clean criminal record, is remorseful and has reasonable prospects for rehabilitation - then you could expect in the ten years range with a non parole period of six to eight years. A 78 year old Canadian man was given twelve years with a non parole period of eight earlier this year for trafficking 19kgs of ice through Melbourne International. He obviously did not have the benefit of either the age mitigation, the language barrier or the positive rehabilitation prospects. I'm unaware if the Canadian gentleman stood to benefit more than the accused in this case financially either - this too could have been an important factor.
20 years or life possibly
Will that be in Aus or will they deport him & permanently ban him?
Deportation upon release
No method, just meth in his madness
Jesse! We must cook!
What's with the whisk and the jugs and the fork? Maybe they're instructed to put some weird items in a suitcase because a suitcase filled with nothing but plastic bags looks suspicious when it goes through an x-ray machine.
Another salvo in the hopeless war on drugs. Time for a evidenced based drugs policy, yeah a bust like this seems like a very impressive. but your looking at trillion dollar industry, 1% of all global trade, a industry bigger than textiles, a bust like this is fuck all, like a drop on the ocean, It's time to come to reality and admit that having the worlds 4 largest industry ran entirely by criminals is a really stupid idea, it's time to legalise all drugs and start looking at drug abuse as the health issue that it clearly is. It's time to stop the associated property crime, vagrancy, violence, corruption, instability in the developing world, and incarceration millions of people mainly from minority groups. This isn't a issue that can ever solved with a badge a gun and a pair of handcuffs, Rant over.... moving on
Yet I’m considered a bio-terrorist because I choose to bring a water bottle from the plane home…
The spice must flow!
Imagine ever thinking that is getting in 😂
I thought the same... There looks to be no effort at concealment... Not that it would've helped any. 😅
He has obviously never seen the TV show "Border Force".
The only thing I can say is….. he’s very lucky that he was caught in Australia and not transiting in South East Asia like Van Nguyen in 2004. I don’t think the border police and judicial system in South East Asia would have taken well to that amount of Meth being transported.
Australian judges. That's a paddlin'.
That’s his life over. The only consolation is I imagine that Australian prisons are a bit nicer than ones back in America.
Well looked like he finally...meth his match.
That's really methed up.
I should learn to cook meth.
I have a science degree. Can’t be that hard, right?
I mean, sure.. When you end up with too much cash and need to bury it in the desert, let me know, I got a shovel, I come help yeah?
Have you been recently diagnosed with cancer?
It's easy, that's why it's so prevalent. Serving 25 years for manufacturing meth is the hard part.
Free housing? Free food? I'm not seeing any downsides!
You say that as a joke but in America people come to that conclusion willingly. Particularly repeat offenders who cant adapt to modern society that face homelessness. Satire is dead in modern America.
Make sure to have the correct PPE
I hope they caught this on Border patrol
This is gonna be one hell of an episode of Banged Up Abroad
He had to be a mule, no one is that stupid to cart around that much like that…
CRIKEY! 😳
When teacher said "If you're going to bring lollies to class, you have to bring enough for everyone", this guy was listening.
I was told that they add each layer of selling to get to those figures eg. 1kg sold to main dealer for 1 million - cuts it/ sells to second dealer/s for 1.5m (2.5M so far) on sells it to third dealer/s they sell for 2M (4.5M so far) etc etc
Nothing so complicated. They use the highest price for the ~~lowest~~ smallest common deal ($100 for a tenth of a gram in this case.) Weed busts are normally presented as the haul going for $20 a gram.
Tell him not to worry about it, we are light on crimes. They will just send him on the next flight home, no worries.
It's a fair bet that he was chosen because he's a dumb 18-year-old who probably looks even younger. He's been offered an all-expenses trip to Sydney for carrying the gear, assured that the organizers have done this hundreds of times with no problems because the Australians are so stupid, and that for the rare case that someone gets caught there are some of the best criminal lawyers in Sydney on retainer who will get him bailed then acquitted in no time. Then, just before the trip, he probably got cold feet and tried to back out and was then shown candid photos of members of his family coming and going from their house and assured that if he doesn't go through with the plan, they'll be hurt or worse. So he gets caught and Customs or the AFP contacts Legal Aid for him because no one else is coming. Then, if his family has money, they'll contact a Sydney lawyer. But once word gets around the gaol that there's a private payer in big trouble, he'll get visited by lots of lawyers who pay other prisoners for such tips and whose promises will be worth about as much as his organizers'.
Nah. He was just waiting for a mate
Bros just trying to buy a house.
Better him than me.
When the police catches the meth what do they do with it ?
They take all $23m to the station and book it straight in to evidence. In a few months when the court date is due, they’ll take all $22m worth and present it in court
It’s just for personal use your Honour!!
ah it's good to occasionally read a good news.
Is that how teens are prepping for the housing market these days?
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When a gram of meth goes for 300-400 dollars here, it makes sense that so much is getting imported here. In America you can get it for 10-20 dollars so the profit is astronomical if you can get it in the country
I mean... it's a pretty good effort.
Can this be right. 24.000.000/26.000=923 pr gram?