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NEWS: X-ray Foils Heroin Smuggling - Herald Sun - 24/11/03

Cowboy Mac

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X-ray foils heroin smuggling
November 24, 2003
AAP
Source

X-RAY equipment helped foil a sophisticated attempt to smuggle $20 million worth of heroin into Australia, police said today.

Authorities in Melbourne said they seized almost 21kg of heroin that had been concealed in six plastic injection moulding machines which arrived in Australia from Malaysia on Thursday.

Australian Federal Police later arrested two men after keeping watch on a factory in Dandenong, south-east of Melbourne. Both appeared in court today.

The haul, with a potential street value of $20 million, arrived at the Melbourne docks aboard the Malaysian-registered cargo ship Magnavia, an AFP spokesman said.

The AFP passed on intelligence to Australian Custom Service officers, who discovered the drugs following an x-ray of the container carrying the machinery.

The heroin was substituted with a harmless substance and federal agents then monitored the delivery of the container to a factory in Dandenong on Friday.

On Saturday morning, a man went to the factory and tried to access the parts of the machinery that had concealed the heroin.

Police followed him to the Clayton area where he met another man, and the pair were later arrested a hotel in Huntingdale.

"The concealment was sophisticated and consistent with the importation being carried out by a well-organised, transnational criminal syndicate," federal agent Frank Prendergast said today.

"We still have a number of inquiries continuing in relation to this matter.

"But we have definitely gone some way to disrupting a well-organised criminal activity."

The seizure was the fourth-largest importation of heroin into Victoria and the third significant seizure of the drug by federal police and customs in Victoria this year, Mr Prendergast said.

"This operation sends a strong message to would-be drug importers that they are taking a substantial risk in attempting to smuggle narcotics through our borders," he said.

ACS director enforcement operations Jim Smith said x-ray technology, installed at Melbourne a year ago, was crucial in discovering illegal imports.

The $3 million x-ray machine, one of four in the country, x-rays 100 containers a day.

"The machine has previously picked up on opium, cigarettes, alcohol and other illegal imports," he said.

"Thirty-four per cent off all imported cargo docks at Melbourne, so this technology is crucial in detecting illegal imports."

Malaysian national Chow Tan, 27, and Singaporean national Tiong Goh, 53, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court today charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of heroin under the Customs Act.

Both were remanded in custody to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 1.
 
The $3 million x-ray machine, one of four in the country, x-rays 100 containers a day.

..."Thirty-four per cent off all imported cargo docks at Melbourne, so this technology is crucial in detecting illegal imports."

Wow! That's certainly a bit higher than the 0.1% or 1 in a 1000 which was the quoted figure back when searching a container involved manually pulling the thing apart and repacking it. Still, it looks like global intelligence definitely plays a big part in many of these interceptions. Altogether I would think it's becoming much harder to get things through, but who knows? Perhaps another means exists, with the very reason it does exist being because we don't know about it. We'll probably never know, which, depending upon how you look at it, could be a good thing... ;)
 
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