Inside the cartels controlling Australia's cocaine trade | Four Corners

cocaine's going through the biggest boom in Australia's history we use more of it per capita than any other country and we're willing to pay for it Australia's the most expensive country in the world for cocaine it's a most expensive country in the world it's an illicit economy regulated by violence Proclaim when you're looking anywhere from say 18 to up to 28 grand depending what it is for handgun Clint cocaine can be dangerous almost 400 users have died in the last five years [Music] police celebrate big seizures we're estimating the value to be around a billion dollars people who are part of the cocaine supply chain tell a different story [Music] one we're really given access to none of the people you see in this investigation check this out have spoken to the media before from the retailers when I was actually getting photos of bricks I realized I'd really sort of shifted into a different level all the way up to the highest level traffickers there's so many bricks out there that's what's on that plate could get me five or six years [Music] they tell me Latin American cartels like Sinaloa have infiltrated their local game they've got storage for me and they've got the Hitman here and they got their soldiers and their foot soldiers and they've got the business guys counting everything for them they'll wipe you off the [ __ ] Earth they'll make you disappear you'll just go do we monitor them we try their best to do so and the people they sell to aren't who you'd expect from judges to cameraman everyone is on it I've personally seen judges take it with a glass of single malt [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] so I'm on my way to meet with a street dealer who's been running drugs across the country since he was in his early 20s and he's been doing it for roughly eight years now he's really anxious he really didn't want to meet us [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] drug dealers generally don't like speaking to journalists it's also hard to verify what they say but what you'll hear in this story Stacks up with the public record rule number one turn the mic on and with what my underworld sources have told me yo yo one two three four five six before I was a journalist I was involved in the criminal world and for full disclosure I was a member of an outlaw motorcycle club it allows me to Forge relationships with people who are also involved in that world and they trust me with their stories because they know I've experienced the same things they've experienced in some capacity in the past cool it's all good we'll head off because it's all good if he's late but it's no good if I'm late the dealer insists I show up alone I don't know what to expect [Music] so we're just waiting for my main Supply to kind of job off what I need he still needs to stock up for the weekend we've got a pulley roughly around a quarter and offers to show me some videos and you send that to people yeah so that's the people so take a quick video of it on Snapchat send it to finally if you're there I usually use weekend signal let everybody know around for the week and how much would that cost anywhere from say 64 up to 76 Grand Worth right there the dealer often makes fake coke with crushed up Panadol and hairspray and we say it's really popular it means it's ready to go he uses it to cut his cocaine diluting it to maximize his profits but sometimes he just bags the fake Coke and sells it to people he doesn't know for 350 a gram for a little storm it's a good little ad for Chanel blue yeah it's my favorite perfume [Music] anything else Place encrypted up it's gorgeous message me here things can be pretty hectic at this end of the supply chain someone's offering high quality ounces of cocaine for a suspiciously low price so he's hatching a plan for an associate to pull a gun and steal the coke so how would he take it off him if it's in the car I have to chat with you throw the trust a little bit and just pulled out a goblet of this expectations give me everything out pretty simple so do you have to have a gun on you what's your admit myself so how much did they cost offering payment you're looking anyway from say 18 and up to 28 grand depending what it is for a handgun clean dirty depending hoodies now do that these ones have been used to Fitbit though can get shot anytime set up on people like this when you're doing the left wall there's just no option there's no problems he says he inherited a violent streak from his father who was in the Chilean Army we thought was to just go in and start shooting people I've been in both for the president at the time the problem is this dealer also has a huge cocaine habit how much is your habit costing you four or five runaway so you can [ __ ] life up pretty quick you can find something that's about running confused um friendships and they're just going to spiral above you just love the feeling so nicely just keep doing it I think he needs to be a drug dealer in order to feed his habit but I also think that The Habit is what's making him make really violent decisions he was so kind of trigger happy to create enemies and rip people off in a highly dangerous and volatile environment at that level kind of drug suppliers on the street it always feels as though they've got everything to gain and everything to lose [Music] foreign Coke on the streets a lot of people wind up dead or in jail that's not the only way it can go some people use drug dealing to escape the bad hand Life deals them this morning I'm going to introduce you to a former cocaine dealer we'll call Remy they have an extraordinary personal story about slinging cocaine across Western Sydney from the age of 12. [Music] [Applause] [Music] driver taking a few spots around Sydney tell you some stories show you some things [Music] what is all of this mean to you rolling around in a car like this living in a leafy North Shore suburb considering how you grew up um it's everything I wasn't meant to turn out this way a lot of people watching this might be surprised that a woman was so heavily involved in the drug world a lot longer and not the types of girls you'd always assume [Music] this is actually the first place I moved out my mum and my stepdad I found out when I was about 12 that I was gay it was a literal words packed to sit and get out you know Child of Mine so this is another one of those places for a while she was living on the streets then she met her first business mentor first place that I'm today she gave me an opportunity to make money and said hey I can change all this for you gave me my front so essentially a bunch of drugs that I didn't have to pay for until I'd earned the money to be able to repay her and then so there was three corners that we had around this block and everybody knew where to come to as a teenager I thought I knew everything didn't know about people having Turf here and there and apparently I was stepping on somebody's toes and selling on their turf walk across the road there there's two girls who were probably in their 40s I was 14 years old I've got jumped by both of them and actually got stabbed four times in total even though she was a staunch Street kid behind the bravado Remy was terrified a lot of gun rimmed into my mouth so hard I had an already sort of chipped tooth in the back of my mouth not that tooth clean out of my mouth hearing stories like that most people would think why would you keep going the money's an addiction the lifestyle is an addiction you can have girls that you want you can have nice shiny things that you want you can have all the things that you're told that you can't have I drive past mod high school and laugh all the time because not one of the teachers that told me I wouldn't be [ __ ] is in a car half as nice as mine not even half as nice so it's an ego thing [Music] so this next place I'm about to show you it's called Hibernian house in her late teens she began living a double life buildings food with creatives she took a nine to five sales job which put her in touch with the wealthy professionals fueling the coke boom I thought I'd bring you guys here so you can check this out [Music] places Wild [Music] Remy operated a trap house a place where drugs are dealt deep in the guts of this building next to Sydney Central Station so this door made me a lot of money over the years I realized that working in the corporate world in cocaine really worked well together a whole new client market for me so for most days I was sat here doing up deals on my lunch breaks working out hours where I see clients so I started to meet more professionals started to network over the after work drinks hang out with the managing directors meet their managing director friends some of the biggest co kids I've ever met there were work events where just at a work event alone you could turn over 15K I'd just say dollars dollars dollars that's another Street thing so for me I'm very very money focused because it's about changing our narrative and our generational wealth and I've been able to do that in a legitimate way now like an air transfer what wasn't the greatest of Lifestyles into a pretty good life [Music] breaking the cycle didn't happen quickly or smoothly by the time she was in her early 20s she knew she wanted out but the fast money was hard to give up [Music] the highs are super peak of dopamine where you get the super rush you feel Invincible you've got all this money but you can have 100 Grand one night and be 250 000 in debt in the next week like that [Music] does that happen how do you blow money like that try taking 20 girls 15 girls to a club bottle service upon bottle service still one of the cringiest things I've ever done I think you spend close to a hundred thousand dollars in a strip club throwing money [Music] how long were you juggling your day job with drug dealing that went on for about five to eight years where I was actually working and doing that sort of stuff but it got to a point where I had to make a decision being able to step away from that much money and go is it worth it long term is a question that you eventually have to ask yourself did you want to live a life of crime and potentially in and out of jail your whole life and get them to scumbags your whole life or do you want to be up there sorry and actually be doing the things that you know you can be doing foreign [Music] ERS describe their business as the game not everyone gets to decide when the game's up [Music] I've come to an art gallery opening in Richmond in inner city Melbourne curated by five-time Archibald prize finalist Benjamin Aitkin I thought this is the best spot for it yeah it looks beautiful thank you just over a year ago he experienced a spectacular Fall From Grace one of the great things about Ben Aitkin is that although and I don't think it's any secret he has been and can be a wayward child he is a fantastic artist thank you Ben how prevalent is cocaine in the art world very very privilege and how do you know that because I used to sell to a lot of people at events similar to this quite regularly [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've met a few people in the game like Ben Who start off with everything and lose it all hey Bo Ben it's kind of storm welcome brother thank you it's a cool space this is the first time he spoken publicly about his cocaine dealing do you want to take your seat with me mate what have you got a fellas so here I've got my uh Brave of evidence from the Victorian police based on what police found at Ben's apartment in 2021 he was charged with trafficking drugs and other offenses the cocaine I was arrested with was at 74 percent this was found in the cupboard this is some 12 gauge bullets and then they found upstairs they found a full counter how much money did you put through this machine countless 50 to 80 000 hundred thousand dollars at a time [Music] when Ben lost the job during the pandemic his dealing took off and he started supplying other dealers when I was actually getting photos of bricks and seeing bricks like kilos that was probably what I realized I'd really sort of shifted into a different level I always in the back of my mind knew that there's a really good chance that I'd go to jail [Music] police realized Ben wasn't a low-level trafficker because his cocaine was so pure he was only a couple of steps away from the Importer instead of putting Ben in the remand Center he was sent to a Maximum Security Prison and they put you in that position to scare you and they offered to help you offer to drop charges if you give people up I just said I can't give you anything I don't have anything to say why do you feel the need to protect those people who were supplying you protecting them protects me as well um you know either way my life would be in danger and you know in the drug world you follow a code you just don't give people up and the more time you spend with criminals or inside jail or rehabs the modest gets ingrained in you in the more institutionalized you become to that code foreign spent over a month in jail pleaded guilty and was sent to rehab his story was splashed all over the newspaper [Music] as a child he was a victim of sexual assault and he's recently been diagnosed with PTSD anxiety and depression he now takes prescription drugs to mask the pain he used to treat with illegal ones heroin on and off foxy ZX oh it's in the early days ketamine prescription pills do you think there's a moral problem with being a drug dealer by sort of Justified it consciously by being like well if you're gonna buy drugs at least buy them for me because you know I'm going to look after you um you know I'd test everything myself I would test every pharmaceutical with fentanyl test strips um I would explain dosages to everybody as a user myself you know I had that empathy for other people as well and that's the way I sort of Justified it by being like this ethical drug dealer [Music] I guess if I'm completely honest probably yeah um morally doing drug is wrong [Music] what made you come to that conclusion just now because I've seen it affect people's lives [Music] [Music] Australia is a tough market for cocaine importers an island nation with heavily protected borders the key to getting it through is the door they're often the most elusive vulnerable and prized members of a drug syndicate we've actually managed to set up an interview with a door this morning it's incredibly rare access this guy is well known in Underworld circles throughout Sydney he's been dealing Distributing and importing cocaine over several decades he's going to meet us here at Brighton Sands just across the bay from Sydney airport where he actually worked for a number of years and he's going to talk us through what that operation looked like when he was a so I'm gonna go meet up with him now [Music] which one was the heroin play Vietnam he always Vietnamese of heroin you got the uh United Supreme Court in Argentina's irelandas they're in years to bring it on the wall in ice the doors are well-connected figure in the Australian underworld in other words he's also a member of an outlaw motorcycle club so this is your old stomping ground yeah [Music] what's your role in the cocaine supply chain and also door of the door in the airport and an employee at the airport as well so I was the door at the airport and what does that mean I was organizing the uh code coming through the airport helping to get out of the airport using my access into the airport as a way to get everything out all the supervisor and how would that work we have swipe cards so when you would skate to go through and what time you go through you go through and you got a backpack on or whatever you have on and you swiping through or sometimes you get one of the supervisors to drive you out of the car which doesn't get never used to get checked you gave a boot full of everything you need to just drive straight out into the uh main road and meet someone blocking the next suburb before he was forced out of the airport he sometimes brought in as much as 15 kilos every two or three days his fear would be 30 of the product which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars per shipment for him and the other airport staff he was corrupting [Music] these guys aren't gangsters these guys are actually all guys that were working on a low income a lot of gamblers and a lot of guys love the poker machines and this is easy scores to go grab on board because if you're only yourself 800 bucks a week and then you throw an extra two three thousand dollars made those silly Mothers for it the people that you were working for who were they people are working for we had a middleman but they were actually for the Colombians and the Mexicans you know uh [ __ ] ruthless too mate now till that business we have a Car Tool in Australia as well as all the Mexicans of Colombians they're here to watch all their products come into the country when you're bringing in this 120 kilos coming in and it's worth four times the amount it's worth over there they want they got people basically just to watch all this stuff coming in and out make sure that I get ripped off and they've got storage for me and they got the Hitman here and they got their um their soldiers and the soldiers and they got their the business scores counting everything for them but not everybody will ever see these guys you know not everybody or girls I met him through the middleman but he's actually on the Run overseas now too he's referring to a senior member of an Australian Syndicate he won't say who they are so the middleman wasn't Colombian or Mexican the middle man was a Colombia was uh Middle Eastern and he was dealing with them directly yep he's in Australia but he was basically based overseas and based over in Dubai or being turkey so be going back and forth but he'd come in Australia and he'd meet up and then he'd go back out again the door says his relationship with the cartel was straightforward until he got greedy he cut their cocaine and then accused them of ripping him off with low-grade product and I said okay we're gonna meet up here so it was about eight o'clock at night and they came and met me in the street in a dark Street five cars pulled up and foreign just telling me [ __ ] me again and I want to [ __ ] you up they'll wipe you off the [ __ ] Earth and I'll go somewhere else my last name might be off the earth I mean they'll make you disappear you'll just go your position as a door gives you a lot of Leverage though like you're really important to their business structure didn't they care about that they do care about that but their business scores the car tour will always find somebody who always wants me there are immigration people there are people in customs on the payroll I can't say who they are I don't know who they are but I guarantee they're on the federal because some things come from the airport as a pallet and they get through and on the porches or in other words it's not just one person they've got they've got a silicon in probably every state on every airport in every port do you have any regrets [Music] I don't have regrets but I was losing I might honestly and you think I'm bullshitting every week every two weeks while I was going to a funeral the only person who's going to be sitting there crying is your mother and I'll put my mother through helping back and if I can go back and change stuff just to make my mother happy again I'll be going back but Hollows I took that path it's my choice and I have to live with it [Music] thank you [Music] over the past few months I've been speaking to people working across Australia's cocaine supply chain but I wanted to speak to someone whose job it is to disrupt that supply chain and a restaurant dealers when visiting the New South Wales crime commission the state's most powerful and secretive law enforcement agency pleased to meet you his own migrant background gives him a nuanced view of crime Haniel batturi grew up in southern Sydney at the same time as some of Australia's most Wanted drug traffickers why do you think people get involved in dealing or trafficking cocaine why you would get into selling cocaine is for the profit why does someone fall into crime more generally is disadvantage without a doubt you would have seen this firsthand I mean growing up I grew up amongst a monger community and I saw myself how some of the kids came to school were very very poor they had no hope at actually getting ahead in school but having said that not everybody that gets involved in crime is necessarily from a disadvantaged background I've seen that for myself over many years federal police allege there's five and a half million dollars worth of cocaine hidden inside these television camera battery units how has the cocaine business changed over the last two decades I recall around about the Olympics and the price of cocaine was between 120 to 150 000 a killer and if you consider today that the price of cocaine is between 250 to 300 000 a kilo you can see the demand for cocaine has increased greatly the profit margins are astronomical so any conflict surrounding the sale of it and the profits will be intensified naturally we've been told by sources that Latin American cartels have a presence here in Australia is that true in my in in my experience as an investigator yes they can come here and they do have a presence here yes can you tell us anything more about their presence here in Australia I don't have any specific information but definitely do members of cartels from any kind of group whether it's it's from Eastern Europe or South America or the Middle East do they come to Australia certainly they do do we monitor them we try our best to do so today the Australian government is part of a global operation has struck a heavy blow against organized crime three years ago police targeted a so-called Aussie cartel of nine drug traffickers the government believed they were responsible for about 30 percent of all drug importations with billions of dollars but even the biggest police victories are short-lived between November and February this year authorities seized about seven and a half tons of cocaine destined for local users that's about three tons more than the previous annual record in just four months we believe there was enough cocaine to service the Australian market for about one year last week we saw three tons of cocaine seized major cocaine traffickers in three states tell me that wholesale cocaine prices are now falling sure sign that there's more cocaine in Australia than ever the New South Wales Grant commission it identifies four operatives involved in organized crime the financials who provide the capital the entrepreneurs I guess they're the leaders the ones that are running the show the professionals who deviate from their code of ethics to support these illegal activities and the criminals who execute the crimes most efforts were successful only against those who executed and less successful against professional facilitators the financiers and the big bosses that are running it essentially so they're still operating kind of one step ahead often they will have the access to the best Technologies and they'll be the most organized [Music] people say crime doesn't pay that it always ends badly but that's not necessarily true [Music] I know of serious drug dealers who are clean-cut businessmen with children in private schools offshore accounts in a portfolio of legitimate businesses I finally landed an interview with someone at the top of the cocaine supply chain a large-scale commercial trafficker there is a knock at the door he's been doing it for more than 30 years and has never been caught he sent someone ahead to sweep the place for bugs while he does reconnaissance in the neighborhood to check that it's safe [Music] the trafficker is taking a huge risk meeting me like this to minimize the danger he won't let us keep an audio recording we've used a voice actor instead so I brought something along to show you have you got a plate I could put it on sure one sec wow the smell of that is strong ER from that distance you know it's good it's because I use petrol to processor that's where the smell is coming from how much coke is on that play and how much is it worth this particular card is from the corner of a one kilo brick it's about four or five ounces I would say street value this is fifty thousand how do you determine the purity of a block of cocaine like this when the bricks are compressed they break apart a certain way if I break it open now you can hear the sound and really smell how pungent it is it also has a particular Sheen a lot of people call that Pearl or fish scalp because of the layer flakes to a sharp point when it breaks apart it's very scaly percentages in the mid 80s you don't really see anything in the 90s with access to cocaine of this purely what does that say about your role in the hierarchy generally means you have friends who are high up the ladder to be truthful I can't tell you where because it would make it uncomfortable for people I work with there's an importer and a wholesaler it's all I'll say how do you Source cocaine of this quality with higher amounts it's always done by introduction you can't just walk up and ask for a kilo you have to work your way up until someone trusts you at a certain level there's heaps of paranoia when we're dealing with the Millions in the media the police line really has been that there's one major Aussie cartel that's responsible for importing the majority of the cocaine into Australia what do you make of that in the past there were very big syndicates who controlled the airports and Docks but in general it's smaller groups of four or five people that work within the circle they Trust can't tell that you're talking about their traditional lines were taken out by the encrypted apps that the police made so there's new ways in different people in the sea authorities claim that Peak annual consumption for cocaine sits around 5.6 tons what do you make of that number 5.6 tons some of the shipments that are getting in it's probably not even half the amount there's so many bricks out there it just doesn't make sense it's much higher than that thank you I never really encountered violence in the cocaine industry if you can choose who you work with the money's not worth getting shot there are other people who enjoy that kind of violence I prefer to deal with people over a cup of coffee really that's surprising um what about all the violence we hear about in the news between different factions is that over cocaine where does that stem from a lot of money could bring violence some of it is territory but mainly its personalities some of them might say something if they get offended they'll shoot you the most violent people generally people above them don't want that it's always someone a bit lower or it's families or clubs generally it's looked down on by everyone because it brings eight but you also need to project strength because when there's a lot of money around there's people that are very desperate out there trying to rob your and sell your product that's cut down too much if you use your street smarts you can usually see the problem before it happens have you ever had a gun pulled on you and can you tell us about any of those incidents if someone pulls a gun on you they're generally trying to scare you if someone pulls a gun and they're going to use it you won't see it how does cocaine get into Australia it's always you need no product in food farming equipment or musical equipment could be anything in places like Bali or Fiji cartels or big syndicates have paid officials off to look the other way so they can bring in suitcases for Cocaine by plate can you describe a bit about how your operation works most people only work with close-knit friends or family usually around five people or it's difficult to control people's habits you want people who are willing to do the time for the amount of work they're doing other syndicates that have dialer dealers like pizza deliveries only last five to six months tops they can't manage leaks in operations that big what can you tell us about your clientele and the types of people you do business with the demand for cocaine has skyrocketed it grows every year all the people were supposed to look up to are on it who sold the football players professional athletes lawyers celebrities on TV people in the media medical field surgeons doctors nurses depending on what shift they're on sometimes I see people I sell to on TV and think well from judges to cameramen everyone is on it I've personally seen judges take it with a glass of single malt it's a highly stressful job they deal with a lot of [ __ ] and sometimes you just won't ever laugh are you a traffic uh a businessman or a criminal there's a business aspect to it managing money there's an obvious criminal element to it just what's on that plate could get me five or six years I know I'm a criminal per se but I'm not an outlaw trying to rub it in the police's face in this lightning of work you must encounter disputes or disagreements with importers how do you manage those disagreements because like you said there's big personalities involved the middle easterners the Greeks the Vietnamese the Romanians the Australians all have different styles the Vietnamese are more family orientated they almost see you as a cousin the Australian's almost like uh hippie style non-violent obviously there's a very violent side to some of the Australians too but it depends where they come from albanians Iraqis and Afghans their idea of solving a problem is to hurt you and they always have a lot of people can you tell us in general terms how lucrative you and what you do with the money I go to the hookers would make it rain that uh in this industry we don't have super I just want to make enough money so there's a point in time where I can just go off into the distance retirement will be funded by Australia's growing appetite for cocaine [Music] it's little interest in violent turf wars Sensational headlines or policy battles many dealers and traffickers are getting on with the business of meeting record consumer demand a demand that lives in its wake a trail of blood and addicts from Latin America to Australia [Music] guilt with the negative aspects of dealing cocaine if I can give you something that you want for a reasonable rate but good quality I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong as long as I'm doing my part I can sleep well [Music] thank you foreign [Applause] [Music] if this program has raised concerns for you you can contact one of these services

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 2,428,548

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, cocaine, coke, documentary, cocaine documentary, drugs, illegal drugs, coke dealer, drug dealer, drug trafficking, drug supply, drug smugling, airport, planes, heroin, airlines, drugs australia, cartels, drug cartels

Id: 5a0iZvG4kEM

Length: 44min 38sec (2678 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2023