Strong AUD drives int'l drug rings to target Australia

 Recent massive drug hauls showed that strong Australian dollars is part of the reasons that drives international drug rings to target Australia.

Earlier this month, the Australia Federal Police seized nearly a quarter of a tonne of methamphetamine worth 55 million U.S. dollars in the biggest bust of its kind the nation has seen.

At the same day, 27kg of heroin was discovered in a cargo crate sent from Pakistan.

Last week, customs officers busted two Malaysians for allegedly importing 42kg of heroin, which has an estimated street value of nearly 55 million U.S. dollars, stashed in household furniture.

Australia Federal Police's Sydney office manager, Commander Brian McDonald, pointed out that drug prices in Australia far exceed prices overseas, making domestic drug production and importation highly profitable.

He noted that a gram of cocaine can be sold for over 300 U.S. dollars in Australia, while the same quality can only sells for 100 U.S. dollars in the United States.

"At the moment, because of the strength of the Australian dollar, this is a very lucrative market for illicit drugs, especially cocaine, in Australia," Commander Brian McDonald, the Sydney office manager at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement.

The Australian dollar beings to rise rapidly in August 2010, and has reached parity with the U.S. dollar in October last year before climbing higher.

In early May this year, it hit 110.10 U.S. cents, its highest level since the fixed exchange rate era ended in December 1983.

During the period of growing strength of Australian dollar, there has been a steady rise in drug hauls, with dozens of major seizures across the country.

Since July 2010, the AFP have seized more than 1.8 tonnes of drugs and chemicals, 17.6 million U.S. dollars in cash and 44 million U.S. dollars in assets and arrested over 73 people.

In October, police seized a massive 450kg of cocaine, which worth 176 million U.S. dollars, in Brisbane.

In November, the Australian Federal Police and customs made their biggest heroin bust in eight years, uncovering 168kg of the drug hidden in a shipping container from Malaysia. "Certainly profit or the capacity to gain significant revenue is a key driver to encouraging criminal network to import drugs to Australia, and in that sense the Australian dollar may be part of an encouragement for criminal network," Associate Professor Alison Ritter, Director of the Drug Policy Modeling Program in University of New South Wales told Xinhua in an interview on Thursday.

Professor Ritter said apart from the price, significant demand for drugs in Australia also acts as a lure for international drug rings.

According to a report released last month by Australian Crime Commission (ACC), Australians are among the world's highest per capita consumers of illicit stimulants.

The report said cocaine use in Australia had risen to new highs in recent years, with the drugs being distributed by some of the most sophisticated, profitable and powerful criminal networks in the world.

"If they (the criminal networks) are confident there will be a demand for the product and they are confident that they can get a good price for it, and they also thinks the risks of being lower, then yes they are likely to import more drugs into Australia," Professor Ritter said.

Professor Ritter said that while criminal network does not specialize in one illegal activity over the other, the problem of encouraging criminal network to operate within Australia will increase risks of violence, perception of fear, and lack of safety amongst the general community.

In a move to stop the increasing of illegal drugs import, Customs and Border Protection national manager Air Cargo and Detained Goods, Catherine Asbridge, said the best results will come from improving "intelligence, our profiling and analysis".

While the police and law enforcement play a very important role in controlling the supply of drugs, Professor Ritter said reducing the demand of drugs via social welfare and treatment programs, is also crucial.

"So we need to both decrease demand and supply, and both of these need to go hand in hand, you can't just decrease supply without decreasing demand and vice versa," she said. Enditem

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India testfires air-to-air Astra ballistic missile

 India Friday testfired air-to-air ballistic missile Astra from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in the eastern state of Orissa, highly placed sources said.

"The ballistic flight test of the beyond-visual-range missile was carried out at 09:50 a.m. local time. However, we are yet to know whether the test has been successful. Two more tests are likely to be conducted in the next two days," they said.

The missile, envisaged to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft at supersonic speeds at a range of 80 km, would be integrated with fighter aircraft Su-30 MKI.

Astra, which uses solid propellant, can carry a conventional warhead of 15 kg. It is 3.8-meter long and has a diameter of 178 mm with an overall launch weight of 160 kg.

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