Crime in the Maritime Sector
Australia’s maritime ports are not only important conduits for trade, but also for organised crime groups wanting to transport and receive goods.
Ports are potentially vulnerable as entry points for contraband and as a result, for criminal infiltration and exploitation.
Nature of Crime in the Maritime Sector
Australia’s maritime ports are crucial connecting points for both cargo and passengers. Australia relies on sea transport for 99 per cent of our exports and a substantial proportion of our domestic freight also depends on coastal shipping.1 This makes Australia’s ports the largest freight hubs in the country.
It also means that they are a prime gateway for the entry of illicit commodities. Marine ports have a large physical presence and this, combined with a significant workforce, creates difficulties for effective regulation and security. These vulnerabilities have been exploited by individual criminals and criminal groups to facilitate or commit a wide range of crimes at our ports.
The majority of people involved in the maritime sector are focused on legitimate activity, vital to the Australian economy. However, there are a number of groups and individuals who are focused on committing opportunistic, lowerlevel crimes. Similarly, there is a proportion of higher impact criminal activity that is attributed to organised crime groups.
The majority of organised crime activities within the maritime sector involves the importation of illicit drugs, duty avoidance on goods and organised theft.
The nature of these activities by organised crime groups may have implications for national security issues around maritime ports. For example, transnational threats could arise from a more intense interaction between organised criminal networks and terrorist, insurgent or extremist groups who often exploit similar sector vulnerabilities, including those found within the security and transport industries. This means safeguarding the maritime port environment against terrorist attack, and the detection and prevention of sector-based crime are mutual objectives.2
The Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimates that serious organised crime costs Australia between $10–15 billion every year. This cost comprises loss of business and taxation revenues, expenditure on law enforcement and regulatory efforts, and social and community impacts of crime. Raising public awareness of crime issues is an important step in minimising the impact serious and organised crime can have on the community.
Extent
Australian Crime Commission (ACC) investigations into the transport sector and maritime importation revealed serious and organised criminal activity at the majority of Australian ports.
Most organised criminal activity involved the larger metropolitan ports—although criminal activity at smaller and regional ports was also observed, with some of it at the high end of criminal action.
Seizure data suggests that exploitation of the aviation sector has generally, in terms of the movement of bulk quantities of illicit goods, been less important to organised criminal enterprise than the maritime sector. The ACC’s Illicit Drug Data Report 2008–09 records that sea cargo accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total weight of cocaine detected at the Australian border.3
Small craft, including fishing vessels and pleasure craft, have also been used to import bulk quantities of illicit goods into Australia.
Impact
When ports become exposed to organised criminal activities, there is a wide ranging impact that includes:
- the harm caused by illicit drugs
- an increased ability by organised crime to profit from trade in illicit goods
- depriving governments of potential tax revenues from collecting duty on goods
- damaging businesses when honest operators are put at a disadvantage in relation to those who illicitly sell contraband products at significantly lower prices
- damaging the reputation and integrity of the sector.
How Crime in the Maritime Sector Works
A criminal presence within a maritime port may not always be apparent to the majority of port employees. However, in some instances, the illegal movement of people and contraband may be helped by a small number of criminallyinfluenced individuals employed within the legitimate workforce. These ‘trusted insiders’ share information with external criminal groups to assist their criminal activities.
Internal facilitators also operate within the ports environment. These groups actively collude to exploit port vulnerabilities and directly participate in criminal activity. Criminals may also exploit bond stores or warehouses that receive maritime freight prior to customs clearance.
Links to Serious Organised Crime
Organised criminal groups exploit maritime ports for a range of criminal activities including, but not limited to:
- illicit drug importation
- domestic distribution of illicit drugs
- firearms, firearm parts and weapons movement
- smuggling fauna and flora
- organised large scale theft
- misdescribed or counterfeit goods
- tax or duty evasion
- exploitation of the private security industry.
Government Responses
The Australian Government launched the Organised Crime Strategic Framework in November 2009 to ensure Commonwealth agencies are working together to prevent, disrupt, investigate and prosecute organised crime. As part of the Framework, the ACC has produced two biennial classified Organised Crime Threat Assessments (OCTAs) which identify the highest organised crime threats to the Australian community. The OCTA informed the development of the Government’s inaugural Commonwealth Organised Crime Response Plan (OCRP) in 2010 to help prioritise Commonwealth agencies resources against these threats.
Recognising that organised crime is a national issue that requires a nationally coordinated response, the Commonwealth and the States and Territories agreed to the National OCRP 2010-13 in 2010 to strengthen multijurisdictional approaches, coordination, information sharing and joint activities to combat the national threat of serious and organised crime. Preventative partnerships with industry and the community are part of the strategies to respond to organised crime. These organised crime fact sheets describe the breadth and impact of organised crime activities and provide an insight into how industry and the community can help combat organised crime.
Further information on the Organised Crime Strategic Framework and the OCRP can be found at <http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd. nsf/Page/Publications_OrganisedCrime>
This fact sheet was developed in collaboration with Attorney-General's Department and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.
Endnotes
- Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics (BTRE) 2007, ‘Australian maritime trade: 2000–01 to 2004–05’, Working Paper 69, BTRE, Canberra.
- Professor Michael L’Estrange 2010, Globalisation and technology—changing the future of organised crime, media release, Australian Crime Commission, Canberra, 19 February.
- Australian Crime Commission (ACC) 2010, Illicit Drug Data Report 2008-09, p. 57, ACC, Canberra.