Outwitting the outlaws
by Ernie Davitt, National Affairs Editor, ASM
Australia’s national criminal intelligence agency, the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), is playing a stronger role in trying to outsmart criminals, as Ernie Davitt writes.
The ACC generated almost 6,000 operational intelligence reports and other intelligence products last financial year, an increase of 46 per cent over the previous year, according to the commission’s 2008-2009 Annual Report.
The increase in ACC activity is centred on helping Australian law enforcement bodies get the information they need to target serious and organised crime, in line with the Federal Government’s latest priorities.
“The success of the ACC is not solely determined by the number of seizures, arrests or convictions it records, but rather by the quality of intelligence collected and the level of collaboration with its partner agencies,” Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor said.
“The rise in intelligence products represents the shift of the ACC to focus on its specialist capabilities and to deliver unique intelligence that enables law enforcement agencies to disrupt organised crime and protect the Australian community.”
The ACC has also delivered key intelligence reports on the private security industry and transport sector, introduced the National Clandestine Laboratory Database, and provided key intelligence and operational support to Strike Force Wolsley, which focused on outlaw motorcycle gang activity and resulted in 123 charges, 36 arrests, and notable seizures of firearms, assets and illicit drugs.
The report also outlined the new operating model, the Sentinel Strategy, which would be adopted by the ACC to meet broader national intelligence priorities and better target those criminal entities that posed the highest threat to the Australian community.
“With increasing levels of sophistication and scope of organised crime, it is crucial that we continue to find new ways to utilise our capabilities and focus our efforts on delivering maximum impact,” Mr O’Connor said.
The CEO of the ACC, former Deputy Federal Police Commissioner John Lawler, told a conference late last year that organised crime was costing Australia between $10 billion and $15 billion a year.
“Our investigations indicate that a significant proportion of this is being sent offshore each year and that illicit drug trafficking represents the primary source of these funds – nearly half,” he said.
“But organised crime is also involved in the supply of illegal firearms, in frauds and economic crimes.”
He said that although the ACC did not measure its success by the number of arrests, convictions and confiscations recorded, the commission had achieved some notable successes in that area.
“Rather, our value is measured by the way our quality intelligence helps law enforcement agencies to target their resources and capabilities in the most effective way to dismantle high-end organised crime,” Mr Lawler said.
“This is what intelligence-led policing is all about.”
He said an important weapon in the ACC’s arsenal was the use of special coercive powers, which, with ACC Board approval, the commission could use to source information.
“These powers are similar to those of a Royal Commission and allow us to summon witnesses and require them to give evidence and/or provide documents,” he said.
Failure to attend an ACC hearing or to answer questions carries a penalty of up to five years’ jail.
The ACC’s operations were also overseen and monitored by an inter-governmental committee comprised of police ministers from the Federal, State and Territory governments.
Significant successes for ACC
Since the ACC’s inception, the commission’s successes included:
- Disrupting criminal enterprises of some
- 220 criminal syndicates, groups, networks and individuals;
- Contributing to the arrest of over 1,375 people on around 5,066 charges;
- Returning more than $120 million to the Federal Government through criminal asset seizures and other actions which deprived organised crime of its illicit wealth;
- Seizing illicit drugs with an estimated street value of over $127 million (204kg of amphetamine, 921kg cannabis, 87kg cocaine, 940kg ecstasy and 54kg heroin) and precursor chemicals with the potential to produce illicit drugs with an estimated street value of more than $1 billion; and
- Contributing to amended tax assessments made by the Australian Taxation Office in the order of $400 million – $150 million of which was a direct result of ACC activity.
“The ACC continues to find ways in which partner agencies can collaborate and share information,” Mr Lawler said.
“Another example of how we address the risk of financial crime is through the Financial Intelligence Assessment Team (FIAT). This team, coordinated by the ACC, represents a Commonwealth multi-agency response to financial information sharing, coordination and collaborative targeting.
“By working together, analysts from the ACC, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, Australian Federal Police, Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Australian Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship present a fusion of information, ideas and skills within a secure and well-governed framework.”
Mr Lawler said the ACC’s intelligence collection tools were working but there was a need to take a “reality check”.
“There is no doubt that these intelligence collection tools are reaping dividends. Yet when the current volatile business environment is combined with increasingly sophisticated organised criminal syndicates and operations, it is realistic to expect that there will be intelligence gaps,” he said.
“Criminals are motivated to hide their activities so that even their presence within an industry or activity remains undetected. In the case of ‘white collar’ crimes this is probably even more so as skilled criminals continue to mask their activities with the appearance of legitimacy.
“Some of the intelligence gaps that we face today relate to the ways criminals exploit transnational and domestic trade, move wealth, leverage our financial systems and expertise, use communication and transportation systems, and of course, technology.
“There are far more criminals and criminal groups that we don’t actually know about and the terrain is always changing. More than this, the skills, time and resources needed to fully understand and disentangle criminal economic movements and businesses is not insignificant.
“The ACC is seeking to address some of these challenges through a new intelligence strategy called Sentinel and its supporting high-risk funds methodology.
“This new strategy has now been operating for 12 months.
“In simple terms, Sentinel and the high-risk funds methodology seek to deprive criminals of their wealth and dismantle their business structures.”
This article first appeared in Australian Security Magazine, July/August 2010