Title: Re: Bikies busted importing 5000 guns
Post by Panther on Apr 18th, 2017 at 7:46pm
Brian Ross wrote on Apr 18th, 2017 at 4:53pm:Source: SMH Quote:MILLIONS of shipping containers, which in some cases have been used by organised criminal networks to move illegal goods including luxury vehicles, car parts and e-waste, are leaving the nation's ports every year unchecked by customs officials.
A Sun-Herald investigation into maritime container security also revealed that export containers were being packed with goods by workers who have not been required to undergo any background checks.
According to Ports Australia, about 2 million sea freight containers leave Australia every year. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information reveal the number of containers inspected last financial year was 2599. Photo: Janie Barrett
Despite improvements to maritime security over the past few years, including security checks and the introduction of identity cards for dockside workers, experts warn the chain of human supply to the containers continues to pose a threat to maritime security.
Documents obtained by The Sun-Herald under freedom of information laws reveal that the number of containers inspected by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has been slashed in the past three years to fewer than 1 per cent.
Out of more than 2 million sea containers leaving Australian ports every year, just 2599 were inspected by customs and border protection officials in 2010-11 compared with 4165 containers in 2008-09. The department seized 40 suspicious containers in the past three years.
A spokeswoman for Customs Service, a federal government agency, said it undertook an intelligence-led, risk-based approach to the assessment of export consignments.
''It is not necessary or appropriate to examine every consignment,'' she said. ''To do so would have a significant and unwarranted impact on Australia's legitimate export trade.''
In its latest annual report, the Customs Service chief executive, Michael Carmody, admitted tight budgets meant concentrating resources on ''high-risk people, goods and environments'' through risk analysis.
''The fiscal environment continues to be tight, which reinforces our adoption and development of risk-based approaches,'' Mr Carmody said in the annual report.
The federal government introduced security checks and identity cards for all dockside workers around the country, but gaps remain in security screening for other workers handling containers, including those who pack them in special yards away from the docks.
An official with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), Dean Summers, who is also the International Transport Workers Federation co-ordinator in Australia, warned there were problems with workers who were not subject to any background checks ''stuffing and unstuffing'' containers. ''This area should be security regulated,'' he said.
''We have all these people in packing yards, who are casual staff, some backpackers - it is an unregulated non-unionised workplace where theoretically anyone can be loading containers, and they are much more vulnerable to corruption.
''We need to look closely at who are packing these containers. Wharfies have to undergo comprehensive backgrounds checks, so should they.''
The government was taking action to close the gaps, he added.
A former NSW police assistant commissioner, Clive Small, said agencies had paid little attention to export containers over the years. He said criminals had considered using the method to send large amounts of cash out of the country.
''It is feasible and it can be done. It is a relatively safe method of getting money out of the country, given the small number of containers that are inspected here and at the other end,'' Mr Small said.
''We are not a suspect country and so not a high priority to be searched.''
Crime syndicates have used sea containers as a cheap and easy way to move illegal goods, and know how to route shipments through countries to attract the least attention.
Earlier this year The Sun-Herald reported how e-waste was regularly being shipped out of the country to Asian and African countries.
Pakistan, India, Africa and parts of Asia are among the regions considered particularly high-risk destinations for e-waste.
Criminal gangs were thwarted by NSW police earlier this year from using shipping containers to export luxury cars stolen to order and car parts for lucrative vehicle markets in the Middle East.......Continued |
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[size=11][font=Georgia][i] If they don't check a huge percentage of outgoing shipments, it would be logical that incoming shipments suffer similar omissions. Anything less than 75% inspections would be a real concern. Unfortunately, I suspect that the agents inspect far less than that. Enlighten me, please...... Hopefully, you have anything proving me incorrect Bwian?? Seems the government doesn't want to be held to any statistical investigations..... To me that means th
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