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Romanian crime gangs coercing Australians into accepting mail containing drugs
The Daily Telegraph
April 20, 2009 12:00am
ROMANIAN crime gangs are forcing innocent Australian residents to receive illegal drugs through the mail.
Many of those coerced into taking delivery of heroin, cocaine and amphetamine parcels from overseas are fellow Romanians.
Gang members rely on their legendary reputation for extreme violence as insurance against victims dobbing them in.
They prey on people with no criminal record or history and tell them parcels will be posted to their addresses.
The victims are ordered not to open the parcels and told whom to hand them.
Some of those who receive the drug parcels are paid a small amount for doing so but most are forced to do it for nothing.
The Australian Crime Commission's 2009 report into the $10 billion-a-year organised crime market reveals "scatter importing" through the postal system is a common method of smuggling heroin and cocaine into Australia.
A senior underworld figure, and a former Australian Federal Police agent who specialises in Romanian crime gangs, separately told The Daily Telegraph about the Romanian-run mail racket.
"Millions of dollars worth of drugs - mainly heroin and cocaine but increasingly the more popular amphetamine-based pills - have been imported to Australia in this way and continue to be," the underworld source said.
The former AFP agent - who is still involved in investigating Romanian gangs as a private investigator for insurance companies - said the parcel racket was centred on Victoria.
"They're able to get away with it largely undetected because they put the fear of God into the people who receive the drug parcels," the former agent said.
"Romanian gangsters have little or no respect for human life.
"They will burn your house down, bash you or kill you if you oppose or expose them."
News.com.au
