Pubdate: Mon, 04 Feb 2002 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2002 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441 Author: Neil Mercer AFRICAN CRIME GANGS GAINING A FOOTHOLD ON AUSTRALIAN DRUG MARKET West African crime syndicates, specialising in fraud, people smuggling and small-scale drug trafficking, are targeting Australia, claim Federal Police. In the past 10 months, five people identified by police as being members of West African organised crime gangs have been arrested and charged with drug offences. Three others linked to the syndicates have been arrested over credit card fraud and forged passports. Federal Police say the groups are also involved in illegal immigration rackets and money laundering. Most of them involve Nigerian criminals, but similar groups are operating from nearby countries, including Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia and more recently South Africa. Australian Federal Police agent Dick Moses said the earliest recorded arrest of a Nigerian drug smuggler was 1989 at Sydney airport. "No further significant West African [drug smugglers] were arrested until 1999. Since then, numerous importers have been arrested and significant quantities of narcotics seized." In March last year, two West African organised crime members were arrested and charged over smuggling 2.6 kilograms of cocaine. In other operations, Federal Police have seized 17 stolen passports, 16 false credit cards and two false passports. Mr Moses said the syndicates were entrepreneurial and businesslike. While they were not importing huge amounts of drugs, they used a scatter-gun approach involving "small, numerous and diverse ... forms of importation [such as] body packs, internals and couriered packages". "We see them like worker bees, buzzing around all over the place, doing jobs everywhere," he said. He said while the mainly Nigerian crime groups had been operating in other countries for at least a decade, they had only come to notice in Australia in the last couple of years. The syndicates are run as "loose cells", as opposed to the more typical pyramid structure. "Cell leaders hold regular meetings ... syndicates have been holding debriefings in order to learn from their successes and failures," Mr Moses said. They conducted their own research into various business and police methods and frequently used multiple identities and forged diplomatic passports. The groups had also flourished because Nigerians were frequent travellers and possessed "strong allegiances to the extended family who often reside world wide". "They are well organised, the way they are set up, and we consider the threat to Australia is going to be high," Mr Moses said. The syndicates were active in other parts of the world such as London, Chicago, Islamabad and Johannesburg. In Bangkok, the syndicates were responsible for most heroin trafficking, and were "actively targeting Australia as a lucrative heroin market". - --- MAP posted-by: Beth