An Australian Border Force employee has been charged alongside an alleged crime figure with bribery and drug offences. Video by Australian Federal Police
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A multi-agency strike team, or the MAST, was set up in November last year to target employees
00:06who seem to be law-abiding Australians, but instead are operating in the shadows of organised
00:11crime.
00:13Seven alleged offenders from three separate investigations have already been charged by
00:17the MAST, including four people in Sydney yesterday.
00:24Among those charged yesterday was a female ABF officer and an alleged organised crime
00:29identity.
00:30They have been charged with offences that relate to corruption, bribery, illicit drug
00:35importation and faces a maximum of life imprisonment.
00:41Two other men have been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of border
00:44control drugs, and the woman, who we allege was gifted with money, designer handbags and
00:49jewellery by the alleged offender, alleged organised crime figure, is scheduled to appear
00:54in Dining Street Court this morning.
00:56We allege that the man tasked the woman, who worked as a supervisor within ABF, to search
01:01cargo and ABF systems to determine if parcels were flagged for examination.
01:07We will allege that Perkins fired import cocaine.
01:12More broadly, we used to call these offenders trusted insiders.
01:16However, what they really are are double agents, or double dealers, by working for both sides.
01:24Often they are employed by the good guys, but are secretly and unfortunately working
01:28for the bad guys.
01:30They are extremely valuable to organised crime, who will keep these insiders on their payroll
01:35for years, to make it easier to import large quantities of illicit drugs into this country
01:40and into New South Wales.
01:43By targeting these double-dealing employees, we take away the secret weapons of organised
01:47crime.
01:48It also sends a strong message to all criminals that no one is invisible from law enforcement,
01:54especially those who are accused of acting corruptly.