An Australian Border Force employee has been refused bail and is set to appear in court on Wednesday after being charged with receiving a bribe to allow almost seven kilograms of cocaine to bypass security.
A 67-year-old southwest Sydney man, from Mount Pritchard, with alleged links to organised crime, was also charged for bribing a Commonwealth official to allow the safe passage of the delivery of cocaine, estimated to be worth more than $2 million.
The ABF employee, 50, worked as a supervisor within the Border Force which allowed her to search cargo and security systems to determine if packages and parcels were flagged for examination.
Police will allege the man conspired with the ABF employee to ensure a parcel containing 6.9 kilograms of cocaine would dodge examinations and enter the country.
It is further alleged the ABF member received “cash and high value items” in the months leading up to the offence as well as providing information on a dummy run of cosmetics arriving in Australia from Malaysia in late February.
She was charged with receive a bribe of a Commonwealth public official, abuse of public office, unauthorized disclosure of information and aid, abet, counsel of procure the importation of a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs.
The man was charged with bribe Commonwealth official, aid, abet, counsel or procure the importation of commercial quantity of border controlled drugs and communicating and dealing with information by non-Commonwealth officers.
The pair will appear in court on Wednesday, with the ABF official to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court while the Mount Pritchard man is set to stand in Fairfield Local Court.
The new AFP and NSW Police Multi Agency Strike Team (MAST) revealed on Wednesday there were 40 full-time investigators and analysts focusing on targeting public and private officials who are on the payroll of organised crime.
An AFP statement said New South Wales was “ground zero” for Australia’s illicit drug importations.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Crime Ian McCartney said the Strike Team was identifying and charging the “secret weapons” behind organised crime – trusted insiders and “double-dealing employees”.
“We see the carnage and grief caused by illicit drugs and those who traffic them – innocent people are caught in the crosshairs, violence spills into suburbs, our road toll increases, and the risk increases for our first responders, including healthcare workers,’’ Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said corruption was not just betrayal of trust, but a crime.
“Every vulnerability we uncover, every enabler we stop, takes us closer to dismantling the networks that feed drugs into our communities,” he said.
