Police in the ACT have been funded to establish a Joint Organised Crime Task Force (JOCTF) capability which will work with police in other states and territories to tackle the pervasive issue of organised crime gangs operating across state borders.
The issue is a significant one, as the Australian Federal Police last month warned when it revealed that 51 Italian organised crime clans were operating across the country, including 14 of the pervasive 'Ndrangheta familial clans based out of Calabria, in Italy, but with global connections.
These families are involved in a range of criminal activities and, according to the AFP, recruit outlaw bikie gangs like the Comancheros to transport and distribute drugs and weapons. The mafia also work with Asian or Middle Eastern crime groups to co-operate on drug importation, money laundering and violence.
While ACT Policing is a contracted arm of the AFP and funded separately by the ACT government, the need for a local police investigative capability specifically working against organised crime was highlighted by a major operation late last week, when an investigation codenamed Operation Nairana culminated in search warrants on two ACT homes and a storage unit.
Police seized $1.5 million in cash and more than $10 million in assets as part of that investigation into international money-laundering. Included in the seized assets were eight Canberra properties, $600,000 in crypto currency, and four luxury cars including a $120,000 Porsche Macan and a high-performance Mercedes-Benz 4WD.
The AFP will allege the local man used sophisticated transactions to launder cash and cryptocurrency from the sale of stolen personal identification information, illegal goods and the proceeds from fraudulent scams and illegal online gambling. He was linked to 28 separate bank accounts.
A number of documents and electronic devices were also examined and seized for further forensic investigation.
The 35-year-old Canberra man was arrested last week in relation to Operation Nairana. He was charged with one count of dealing with property reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of crime for an amount of $100,000 or more. He was given bail from the ACT Watch House.
ACT Policing will receive $460,000 in separate budget funding next year for the added investigative capability, which is in addition to the $206.4 million which will be paid to the AFP in 2022-23 to provide general policing and law enforcement services to the territory.
This is an increase of $7 million on the $199.4 million for the contracted police service in 2021-22.
ACT Police Minister Mick Gentleman said the new task force would "facilitate the effective and timely sharing of intelligence, such as relevant intercepted telecommunications or material from surveillance devices, and operational strategy development to target cross-border criminal enterprises".
The ACT government has committed $2.52 million over the next four years to the JOCTF.
