Psychadelic_Paisly
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2003
- Messages
- 2,442
Overseas ops 'cutting heroin deaths'
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15071163%5E1702,00.html
24apr05
RECENT large seizures of hard drugs bound for Australia would not have been possible without co-operating with countries that had the death penalty, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said today.
That international co-operation over the past four years had coincided with a one-third reduction in heroin-related deaths in Australia, he said.
Mr Keelty was responding to questions in the light of the arrest of nine Australians in Bali, for allegedly trafficking heroin.
They may ultimately face a firing squad in Indonesia, which is one of several countries in the region which have the death penalty for drug trafficking.
"We operate within our criminal justice system here in Australia and if we only co-operated with countries that had the same criminal justice system, co-operation wouldn't extend very far beyond Australia," Mr Keelty said on Channel 9.
"To a large degree, this has been successful, certainly in terms of heroin trafficking.
"We now have around 350 Australians die from heroin overdoses each year.
"Four years ago, it was over the 1100 mark.
"The United Nations and other people attribute success in supply reduction to the work that we've taken offshore in countries like Burma, China, Malaysia and Thailand.
"We're working with the authorities in those countries and they all have the death penalty."
Mr Keelty said the AFP would pass on all relevant information to the Indonesian investigators.
"Of course, anything we have here, we will provide to the Indonesians," he said.
"Conversely, anything the Indonesians glean from their investigation, we would expect them to share with us."
He said there was much to learn about the present case, including whether the heroin allegedly seized from the Bali 9 was the only amount of heroin destined for Australia.
"Maybe another syndicate might have been operating or there may be some heroin that was distributed in Bali itself," he said.
"The whole size of this operation is still being investigated."
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15071163%5E1702,00.html
24apr05
RECENT large seizures of hard drugs bound for Australia would not have been possible without co-operating with countries that had the death penalty, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said today.
That international co-operation over the past four years had coincided with a one-third reduction in heroin-related deaths in Australia, he said.
Mr Keelty was responding to questions in the light of the arrest of nine Australians in Bali, for allegedly trafficking heroin.
They may ultimately face a firing squad in Indonesia, which is one of several countries in the region which have the death penalty for drug trafficking.
"We operate within our criminal justice system here in Australia and if we only co-operated with countries that had the same criminal justice system, co-operation wouldn't extend very far beyond Australia," Mr Keelty said on Channel 9.
"To a large degree, this has been successful, certainly in terms of heroin trafficking.
"We now have around 350 Australians die from heroin overdoses each year.
"Four years ago, it was over the 1100 mark.
"The United Nations and other people attribute success in supply reduction to the work that we've taken offshore in countries like Burma, China, Malaysia and Thailand.
"We're working with the authorities in those countries and they all have the death penalty."
Mr Keelty said the AFP would pass on all relevant information to the Indonesian investigators.
"Of course, anything we have here, we will provide to the Indonesians," he said.
"Conversely, anything the Indonesians glean from their investigation, we would expect them to share with us."
He said there was much to learn about the present case, including whether the heroin allegedly seized from the Bali 9 was the only amount of heroin destined for Australia.
"Maybe another syndicate might have been operating or there may be some heroin that was distributed in Bali itself," he said.
"The whole size of this operation is still being investigated."
