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Organized crime remains significant threat to Australia: justice minister

Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Organized criminal gangs represented an ongoing threat to Australia, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said on Wednesday.

Keenan was responding to the release of a new Australian Crime Commission report, entitled Organized Crime in Australia 2015, which revealed the full extent of the threat posed by organized crime.

Keenan, who was in Sydney on Wednesday to release the report with Australian Crime Commission Chief Executive Officer Chris Dawson, said crime syndicates had become increasingly sophisticated in the way they carried out their operations.

"They are violent predators who profit from the misery of their evil trades -- drugs, guns, extortion, prostitution and even child exploitation," he said.

"In the two years since the last snapshot of serious and organized crime in Australia, criminal gangs have become much more sophisticated in cybercrimes, indulging in illegal operations across international networks, finding new ways to do sickening business on the darknet, and hiding their evil behind legitimate businesses to launder money, disguise proceeds of crime and even finance terrorism."

Many of the leading crime gangs were involved in the manufacture, or sale, of methylamphetamine (or "ice"), and profiting from that growing industry.

Keenan said the report highlighted how normal Australians were at risk of falling victim to sophisticated traps set by these gangs, who were "motivated by greed at any cost to our nation."

"While sophisticated criminal syndicates continue to adapt and evolve to expand their reach -- ripping off Australians in the online environment, and becoming even more entrenched in our lives through every day technologies, the Australian government is fostering unprecedented joint efforts with our state and territory counterparts to detect, disrupt and undermine the business models of organized crime," he said.

"Our first priority is to keep our nation safe. We have the best law enforcement authorities in the world that are committed to doing just that." Endi