Exposing the suspected barons of Australia’s meth trade | Four Corners

for months I've been investigating the supply chain for methamphetamine mostly ice or crystal meth it's just come off a block two BS here just to show you they're huge following high level traffickers dealers Cooks Runners en forces I'm loyal to the people I'm with and I'm aggressive and violent to protect them retracing the journey the drug takes from its source in Southeast Asia to the people who control the trade there powerful militia and secretive Chinese syndicates if you were to describe the Triads in one word what word would you use ruthless cold we've never been more challenged it's Relentless it's 247 Australia is one of the most lucrative meth markets last year we shot up smoked and snorted around 10 1/2 tons of meth a 17% incre increase on the year before we spent about $10 billion on the drug it's easy to get it's easy to use it's reasonably cheap but the consequences are devastating the humiliation the Judgment the segregation I've traveled thousands of kilometers along the meth pipeline to investigate the trade and to Hunter man believed to be one of the drug Barons behind it [Music] I'm at this address waiting for a meth cook a little bit nervous because it's taken a lot for us to convince him to be part of this documentary and to tell his side of the story and I hope he show [Music] up he's here turn the camera off hello thanks for coming how are you good is it okay if I film can she film yet or yes yeah yeah of course this cook has asked me to call him Brendan what have you got in your bag I just bought some product just to show you how to extend the product I won't do a cooking show but I can briefly explain he says he's going to explain how he cuts his eyes what's in this tub uh so this is D sof which is MSM it's for um your muscles it's like a joint Rel for it so it's good for you it's on special right now karehouse and uh it's something that liquefies and resolidifies at the same rate that ice does guys like Brendan operate at the bottom of a vast Global Supply Chain these are just half GS so that's a around how much is that worth for good stuff low street though it should be 300 350 anything cheer would be red for me at a high level commercial trafficking level what kind of product are they dealing with 50 g is commercial quantity so I put some product here that just come off a block two bags here just to show you they're huge the scale and difference is yeah it's quite massive how much money could you make off one of those big rocks on the street I think if you put this on the street you'll get roll I use some more light cutting maximizes profits by diluting the meth with a cheap substitute to bulk out the product and Brendan's going to show me just one part of the process and you make what is called a boat so once it's solidified you can break it off look at these little sharks if you look at the little packet earlier I it's pretty consistent almost identical you could make big amounts of this for $20 and then just go straight in I light it you'll see it'll start to liquify you see the slug start swirling D moving and then this one you be sucking it in moving it Forward back you'll see it just start to get back to what looks sort of like oh you know a skating rig [Music] Australia is a key Market we're among the world's biggest users for the past 10 years Outreach workers Jane and Mike have seen the Havoc firsthand on the street there's more chaos there's a lot more engagement with police there's a massive increase in what we call drug induced psychosis or they might call it dip Jane says ice has taken over and I would say 95% of my case load is now what do you they spot a rough sleeper Jane used to work with we can ask him his name is Maddie and he says he'll meet them in a nearby park he also tells Jane and Mike he had a hit a few hours ago he keeps saying he's going to go and then he he gets distracted and does something else but anyway and if he doesn't come in follow ten I would guess we're probably would be here for hours time doesn't have much relevance here eventually they catch up with him and how are things going for you at the moment there's something going on here my pick up madd's paranoid police are coming for him he's just a homeless bum no one he insists on going somewhere private okay what about snap crackle pop after about an hour and a half he's ready to talk how's today been for you um uh lately I've been struggling in myself a bit you know I was up all night oh yeah yeah you're not sleeping at night or it's just too hard to no I just finally got some decent ice last night if you buy a half ball Maddie starts describing his experiences on the dve well I've had to do things that I don't like doing sometimes you can get a contaminated hit you know the dirty hit is quite unpleasant of unpleasant everyone's got their own as I listen to Maddie I can't help but think about the meth Barons swamping our streets with this devastating drug and it can take a life possibly at the extremes I want to know who's behind it yeah [Music] I keep hearing about a guy who's suspected of being behind some of the large meth shipments hitting our Shores I've been trying to get his name for weeks so far no luck I've decided if I really want to find him I need to understand his world to operate a meth Syndicate you need five things a manufacturer a trafficker a door someone who creates a hole at the Australian Border muscle a bunch of violent people to keep everyone in line and finally you need Distributors who get the drugs to the streets I'm on my way to meet with a Syndicate who work with a Chinese Tri the whole meeting is cloaked in secrecy and light on details at the last minute they give me an address we've hit some unexpected traffic and we could potentially be a few minutes late I'm really anxious that they might think something's gone wrong on our end or that they couldn't trust us cuz we're even just a few minutes late that's how high the level of paranoia is in situations like this two guys meet me at the door they're on edge they tell me to go to the laundry there's a heap of meth and a heap of money it's quite a almost like a citrusy smell it's really yeah like lime or Citrus they say lately they've been getting undercut by Mexican cartels who are starting to dominate this multi-billion dollar market they tell us this is their morning's takings so the people I've spoken to who Supply large commercial quantities of methamphetamine have said that the Chinese importers will buy it for roughly $1 to $3,000 in uh Northern Thailand but by the time they get it across the border here they charge roughly $10 to $30,000 per kilo and then the Distributors purchasing off the Chinese Triads will charge roughly between $60 and $70,000 for a kilo the profits are [Music] massive it's taken me a while but a for a high level distributor has finally agreed to talk he was once near the top of the Australian meth [Music] game it's hard to fully verify what people are saying but their stories match a lot of what I've seen and heard during our investigation it's really rare for anyone of this caliber to speak candidly on camera are we rolling we're rolling so who are we rolling he wants to be known as Jay he's done time for trafficking and he started dealing when he was 14 I'm more worried about how I'm going to put food on the table and Jay says he started selling weed on a daily basis I was getting at Le what 70 80 phone calls I couldn't even sit down to have pop of milk you know the authorities say that he tells me he moved up the chain to other dealers then a distributor offered him some meth me how long going to take to actually moved the the the product and I told them I don't know cuz honestly I didn't know how I was what I was capable of and yeah it took me two days less than two days soon Jay says he was making 30 to 40 Grand a week were you ever attempted to touch it no not really because just seeing all the everybody else having the downfall and everything else it's disgusting man what makes it disgusting the fact that people see that as a priority I've had centel where for example they have the kids running around in nappes and everything the nappes hasn't been changed the past 2 3 days instead of them using that Financial Financial funds on their own kid they pass just like man it's just yeah but didn't didn't that spin you after that they play you and yeah but it did but if they don't grab it from me they'll grab it from elsewhere which that from elsewh someone else probably give him [ __ ] of product that's even lower grade percentage the Mone which is that's seem so they don't even getting their money's worth things have changed since Jay was in the game ailla was larg a product you know whereas now we're talking about we're talking about half a ton tons man the Triad that's where the Triads come in with Triads is contracts for example um what you can capable of doing and what you promise them what you can able to do and yeah keeping we to it and what not then otherwise they just cut you off and if not then everything comes with the consequences and everything else you you know what you sign up for they know what they sign up for one of Jay's Associates says the Triads guarantee delivery if a shipment is lost they wear the cost and send another for years several of those Triads operated in a lucrative Network called the company I've heard that the suspected drug Baron I've been looking for has been working with what's left of that Network at highight the company was thought to be earning as much as $17 billion a year more than some Fortune 500 companies Australia was a key Market the man police alleged was head of the company SEI Lop was arrested and eventually brought to Australia to face trafficking charges in 2021 this arrest uh would be one of the most high-profile arrests in the history of the AFP he's awaiting committ in a Melbourne prison operation kunga that started off in 2017 was a priority focus on what we call is the company uh a soueast Asian Sy that was responsible for significant Imports into Australia and through the work of the ifp working with over 17 agencies and and a range of countries from our perspective we we've greatly degraded the activities of that syndicate [Music] I'm learning more about the meth business for months I've been chasing a former enforcer he's finally agreed to meet there's a real risk he won't turn [Music] up Hello Johnny are you here yeah I'm here there's only one form of Regulation within the drugs trade violence I'm loyal to the people I'm with and I'm aggressive um and violent to protect them Johnny served 16 years in prison for hacking a man to death with a samurai sword in the moment when I need to do something it's like there's a switch and just click and I'm gone this is the attitude you need to become an enforcer I can't hold back even if you pull me back I will go forward again if I seen him bleeding I want to see more bleeding but that's that's you know that's not normal that's not normal exactly I want to know how someone becomes muscle for a Triad Johnny tells me his life flipped in his early we we really loving family I was a good good kid at home it is a big he says he started hanging out with a troubled kid and within months Johnny and the kid were roaming the streets getting into fights our name asked White Rose in Asian culture white rose means death another incident happened Johnny says he got a reputation for extreme violence and that led to prison where he met a senior Triad if could only use one word to describe the Triads that you've met what would that word be Cole when you sit with him you talk to him you looked at him you can actually felt that that coldness from him than the power he's a gentleman he's very he tells me more about the Triads they very well organized to them business is more important than violent they only use violin only when they needed it but it's someone else is do it not them which is smart right I've heard from other sources there's a hierarchy amongst Triads Melbourne Triads report to Sydney Sydney to Hong Kong Hong Kong to maau and maau to Mainland China I wasn't trying to make a name for myself I asked Johnny to confirm but he doesn't want to talk about it wasn't trying anything like ask him about SEI lot who's also known as Sam Gore police are making a big statement about the recent arrest of one Chinese Triad called yeah and they're saying that they've got the Godfather of the whole of the southeast yeah what what do you make of that if they was the biggest person in the organization and then now they get basted how come that organization still stand still who's running them people are consuming almost as much meth as when the company was allegedly operating under SE lot and what I'm hearing is the rumor drug Baron I've been investigating is helping to keep the meth flowing people are telling me if I want to find them and understand their trade I need to go to Southeast Asia [Music] [Music] my first Board of call is Bangkok where I find Patrick wi your handwriting is nearly as horrible as I'm a journalist after all your credibility just shot up yeah Patrick studied Asian drug markets for a decade it's going to Australia just he explains how the meth business works it begins when an organized crime syndicate is looking for a place to build a meth lab that Syndicate will go into Myanmar and find an armed group the armed group will say yes you can build a meth lab here they'll usually site it next to a stream it takes a lot of water to make meth and uh the armed group will take attacks of the meth production um that's pretty much all they do they make sure that it's not raided by cops they usually control their own areas like little countries so the cops can't come in anyway Patrick tells me drug Runners take the meth from the lab in Myanmar to the Border syndicates move it from the border to a port from there it's packed into legal Goods like tea or speakers and smuggled into Australia if there's Demand on the Australian side for more crystal meth if it's really moving the order can go all the way back up to the meth labs in Myanmar and they have the capacity to produce more the flow is so heavy that even if cops do pick off this truck or that truck they're getting at best 10% it's just [Music] Unstoppable the hot land of meth production in southeast Asia is the Golden Triangle it's a mountainous region that covers the Borderlands of Thailand Laos and Myanmar it's rush hour in myai Northern Thailand authorities are on high alert they're looking for drugs mainly meth that might have slipped across the border border areas like this are where the vast majority of drugs enter Thailand this is one of the front lines in the global War on Drugs the day before we arrived the Thai military shot and killed 15 meth Smugglers trying to cross the nearby border at a rural Warehouse not far from the checkpoint a drug Smuggler starts work panel by panel he shows us how he readies his scooter for an elicit [Applause] cargo tea bags usually crammed with kilos of crystal meth every time he goes out he risks jail or death he's part of a vast Network that stretches all the way to Australia a dark Highway of drugs which has risen more than 500% in the past decade people get shot people get killed doing this job that could be you G we [Music] have he's just one of many people who make a living on the edges of the Golden Triangle multi-billion dollar meth [Music] trade Golden Triangle is actually quite a big area but this is the center of it so we're in Thailand about 200 M right over there is myamar and right across the river is La so we're literally where it all happens I'm standing with Jeremy Douglas at the apex of the Golden Triangle he's led the un's anti-drug operations here for more than a decade how much is the meth economy in this region worth the last time we measured it a couple years back preo was about $60 billion but if you look at where concentrated production really takes place it's it's really here and it is in Latin America primarily in Mexico Central America I asked Jeremy what role Triads play here they've really had deep hooks into the drug trade through this country and through the surrounded countries through Hong Kong through unan through maau for decades so really their role in this today is is what it always was which is to essentially connect the products of these places to the markets he says traffickers first came here for heroin in the 1970s and then introduced meth in the mid90s the arrival of SEI Lop allegedly changed the game again he did something unique for the first time ever he took Crystal math changed the business model and mentality around how do you procure and distribute meth to the streets and basically did that by connecting this place to Australia never never been done before [Music] it's further up the meong in Myanmar where massive super laabs have been producing large amounts of meth Bound for [Music] Australia I'm talking to lots of people here about the meth trade at a local cafe I meet a tied General who casually drops that a key player in the global meth trade is an Australian man he won't tell me his name I immediately think of the alleged drug Baron [Music] we've actually managed to find someone who currently Works in a crystal meth super lab it's incredibly rare access and he's speaking to us at Great danger to himself we're on our way to meet with him right now [Music] I've been brought to a house on the outskirts of the Border Town myai hello Mr a yes nice to meet you thanks for having us can we come [Music] in what exactly do you do for work I'm [Applause] how did you get into this kind of work Mr a used to play the popular Thai sport seak Tak at a high level but got injured he says he started using and selling meth he was taken in by a former teammate's family who put into work in a meth lab how much drugs do they typically [Applause] [Music] make is that every day I ask him who owns the lab are they Chinese [Music] [Applause] syndicates the United W State Army are an ethnic militia that profits enormously from the meth [Applause] [Music] trade the W are a people indigenous to Myanmar and China a lot of the super labs are on United W State Army territory in myanmar's Shan state they're backed by Beijing which turns a blind eye to Chinese organized crime flying their trade on Wild Land I've just found out a small aw militia might meet with me they're called The W National Army after several hours I'm near the Myanmar border we're in um banrock Tha waiting to meet with someone from the W National Army will hopefully begin to escort us across the border into Myanmar I don't have a lot of faith that we will get across the border tonight just because we're losing light rapidly I'll fix that is is on the phone pleading with whoever's on the other end of the line to get us across um hopefully we will I'm not identifying our fixer because she works on both sides of the border with some serious people after 15 minutes of wrangling she has news what do you think our chances are we can cross but tonight we not we cannot cross tonight we cannot cross tonight but we could to talk to exp that to we can cross tomorrow 6:00 yeah so even tomorrow's up in the air still the war militia is saying they're not sure they can guarantee our [Music] security then they have a change of heart we've just been told that we can cross at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning they were really nervous about the tense political situation at the moment it's very quiet town now it's around 10:00 and I've seen two police cars uh kind of patrolling the area so we're hopeful that everything's calm tomorrow morning and we can actually get [Music] across I set out at dawn with an escort [Music] we stop a few hundred met from a Thai military Outpost if they see me there could be trouble we're about to cross the border into mear it's been extremely difficult trying to get access into the country because a recent wave of violence has inflamed the Civil War there this volatile region has different ethnic groups fighting for territory and it's also where Australia's myth is produced they tell me this is the first time International media has visited this [Music] base nice to meet you from the ABC okay this is Colonel luong local commander of the W National Army how close is the fighting what can you hear luong has about 200 Fighters living here I want to know how close I am to the source of meth production in Myanmar does the Juan National Army receive funding and support from the United Wate Army some of the experts that we've spoken to about this region say that wherever there are guns and militias there's going to be drug production what do you make of [Music] [Music] that in the past the ti authorities have arrested former members for drugs manufacturing and drugs trafficking what do you say to that allegation luong's militia may or may not be making or trafficking the meth but since the 1950 50s Shan State militias have been benefiting from the drugs trade before meth this area was known as an opium growing region for decades it was controlled by the notorious Narco warlord kunar my he's been romanticized in popular movies quing while you're ahead it's not the same as quitty the former us attorney general called him the prince of death the individual primary responsible for this worldwide Devastation of drug addiction is kungai hello Kai hello welcome to our place Kai jenne was kuna's PR person today we catch up with him at the office of a dissident newspaper he founded in changai and tell a bit about this amazing jacket you've got well when the village headman has something to tell the villages you will see a Shan beating a hollow lck and that's your role now your role Now is really to hit the log and have people listen like us most of the he says today's meth trade runs the same way as the opium trade did in kar's time to fight against the boomies government we didn't have any foreign government supporting us and the only source of income for us was opium which is already there and in the old days it wasn't uh illegal kinai says the real winners weren't the they were the Chinese and laan Generals who controlled the trade journalist Patrick wi says the syndicates running the super labs in the Golden Triangle are usually Chinese they might be Triad Affiliated they might be full-blown Triads but they don't have to be these people are interested in business and their sons and daughters go to nice private schools and they live live in normal neighborhoods and they're just really good at moving things from A to B it really comes down to that what exactly does the meth economy in Australia fuel in this part of the world in Myanmar specifically so when someone goes and buys a bag of crystal meth in Australia um they're feeling a long chain that goes all the way back into the Golden Triangle into the mountains of Myanmar you have made made a Chinese organized crime syndicate a little bit richer you probably partially funded uh the purchase of everything from weapons medicine um you know asphalt to pave roads in an impoverished part of Myanmar so I mean it actually helps prop up myanmar's hun as well after months of digging phone calls and late night meetings I've got the name of the suspected drug Baron I discover he may be living in Vietnam or Cambodia and I learn police are investigating him too with a name our team gets this Facebook video his tattoos help identify him they're exactly what you'd expect of a senior figure in the Asian organized crime world but his name is Daniel Rodney badger [Music] this is a video of his lavish wedding in [Music] Vietnam Badger is on the Australian Federal police's high value Target [Music] list is it fair to say that you'd have to be one of the major drug importers to be classified under that high value t list there's a range of factors to consider but that would be one of the key factors yes we're sitting in AFP headquarters uh there's a a room an opos room in this building a windowless room and we have pictures of all of the high value targets on on the wall and we're just working through them one by one and Ticking them off it's a priority focus in terms of taking them not and removing their influence on the drug trade Daniel Rodney Badger is of significant interest to the FP in 2016 Badger listed this public housing residence in Western Sydney as his address just a year later he became a major shareholder in a multi-million dollar Vietnamese chemical and fertilizer Company the company has bonded warehouses and they say they export fertilizers to Australia Badger sold his Holdings in 2018 in 2020 he opened a car wholesale business in hoim city I'm not going to go into individual cases but what I can say in relation to these people uh these high value targets offshore we know where these people are we know what countries they're in uh we know where they live and we are coming after them [Music] about 2 years ago it's believed Badger obtained Cambodian citizenship he also got a new K name sanari sen we tried to contact him I've got two phone numbers for Daniel Rodney Badger and uh going to give him a ring and put some of these allegations to him [Music] the subcrib you head core is not available at the moment sorry but Your call cannot be completed we sent him a list of questions but didn't hear back we asked the Cambodian government if they're aware of badger alleged activities in the meth trade and if given in these Revelations his citizenship will be [Music] revoked they didn't reply to our questions why can't the AFP stub the flow of meth on the streets in Australia we are having an impact we're having an impact both domestically in and internationally but unfortunately uh Australia still has an insociable demand for drugs International traffickers have told us that the AFP is so obsessed with seizures uh they've been exploiting it as a weakness by diverting your attention with dummy loads while they import tons elsewhere seizures of drugs is is important preventing drugs H hitting the streets of Australia but our priority focus is on the people that are behind the these these drug seizures and that's what we've tried to publicize in terms of the important work that we're we're doing in this space but again I think I think it's for say we've never been more challenged organized crime has become more globalized it's become more sophisticated it's become more connected uh it's Relentless it's it's 24/7 governments in the west have been fighting the flood of drugs from the Golden Triangle since the middle of the 20th century for Australia the front line has now shifted to meth coming in from North America it's clear that taking out major players doesn't necessarily stop the flow other markets will meet it what more could Australian authorities be doing this is no longer a policing issue when it gets to this level of production and trafficking and I think it's one of those things that needs to have a public discussion requires also a response that's political in nature it can't simply be in the back rooms and left to police alone law enforcement is one part of the solution but again the narrative is incredibly important particularly in relation to harm reduction it's having such a disasterous impact on on our community we need to continue to tell people about that message [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if this program has raised concerns for you you can contact one of these services for

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 756,102

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, meth, crystal meth, ice, methamphetamines, Daniel rodney badger, Daniel Badger, speed, drugs, addiction, blackmarket, underworld, silk road, cutting, drug mule, drug dealing, trafficking, smuggling, Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Chinese Triads, supply and demand, drug baron, gangs, crime, golden triangle, cartel, crack, investigations, uncovering, investigative journalism

Id: 5nMvKz2fIjc

Length: 43min 34sec (2614 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024