The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) maintains a strategic focus on eight priority crime themes to help make Australia hostile to criminal exploitation. This article explores the ACIC’s priority crime themes which include criminal networks, cybercrime, illicit drugs, national security, serious financial crime, illicit tobacco, firearms, and victim-based crime.
Criminal networks
Serious and organised criminals (SOC) in Australia are driven by greed and will exploit any opportunity to maximise profits, regardless of harm caused. These criminals operate transnationally, using various enablers and collaborating with others to expand their reach and profits. They conceal their activities by exploiting trusted insiders in supply chains and using professionals like lawyers, accountants, and real estate agents to mask their operations. High-risk targets, known as Australian Priority Organisation Targets (APOTs) and Regional Priority Organisation Targets (RPOTs), significantly influence illicit markets across Australia. These entities are involved in numerous criminal activities, including cybercrime, money laundering, and drug trafficking. Addressing these threats requires a nationally coordinated intelligence and investigative response. The designation of APOTs and RPOTs allows for focused efforts against the most serious criminal threats, with ongoing monitoring to identify and assess emerging threats.
Cybercrime
Cybercrime encompasses various offences, such as identity crime, hacking, phishing, botnet activity, and cyber intrusions targeting private and national infrastructure. With technological advancements, cybercriminals use sophisticated methods to evade law enforcement and can target thousands of Australians from anywhere globally. They enhance their skills through dark web forums, sharing tools and techniques.
The ACIC prioritises cybercrime threats by understanding criminal networks and supports government response strategies through collaboration with law enforcement, intelligence, and industry partners both in Australia and internationally.
Illicit drugs
Illicit drugs pose a serious threat to the Australian community, necessitating collaboration between law enforcement and health agencies to combat supply and demand. Organised crime groups involved in drug trafficking and production are highly capable, well-resourced, and transnational. Australians, particularly high users of illicit stimulants, pay premium prices for these drugs. Profits from drug trade and money laundering fund further criminal activities.
Methylamphetamine is the most harmful drug in Australia, linked to mental and physical health issues, property crime, violence, and road trauma. A multi-faceted approach targeting supply, demand, and harm reduction is essential.
The Australian Government’s National Drug Strategy addresses the social and health burdens of drug use. The ACIC contributes to meeting the goals of the strategy by:
- Conducting research and intelligence through the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program.
- Understanding drug markets and criminal groups for effective law enforcement targeting.
- Informing policies and legislation at state and national levels.
- Developing intelligence to identify trends and disrupt criminal activities.
- Providing intelligence for operations targeting illicit drugs.
National security
The ACIC provides critical intelligence on evolving threats from serious and organised crime (SOC) groups, enhancing national security understanding. By gathering and sharing intelligence nationally and internationally, ACIC informs partners and supports whole-of-government strategies to strengthen security and counter-terrorism efforts.
SOC networks are increasingly transnational, leveraging a range of enablers to maximise their reach and profits. Their growing professionalisation and collaboration lead to more innovative and sophisticated crime methodologies, making them more resistant to law enforcement efforts.
Techniques in financing, money laundering, commodity movement, identity crime, and communication used by SOC groups can also be exploited by groups of national security interest.
Serious financial crime
Serious financial crime costs the Australian community up to $60.1 billion annually. The ACIC combats this by investigating financial crimes and providing critical intelligence to partners, which helps to disrupt financially motivated criminal activities.
This intelligence enhances national understanding of money laundering, significant tax fraud, and other financial crimes, making Australia less attractive for such activities. Money laundering, which blends criminal and legitimate activities, spans various sectors, including banking, international funds transfers, gambling, real estate, and more. It is increasingly sophisticated, often involving professional facilitators like accountants and business service providers.
The ACIC’s work on financial crime includes participation in multi-agency national task forces, such as the Commonwealth Criminal Assets Confiscation Task Force, the Commonwealth Serious Financial Crime Task Force, and the Fintel Alliance led by AUSTRAC. Additionally, the ACIC is part of the Five Eyes Money Laundering Community of Practice.
Illicit tobacco
Serious and organised crime (SOC) groups are increasingly involved in the Australian illicit tobacco market due to the rising costs of legal tobacco, which offers high profits and low risks. These groups engage in domestic cultivation, manufacture, importation, distribution, and sale of illicit tobacco.
The ACIC has produced significant intelligence on SOC involvement in this market and is part of the Australian Border Force (ABF) led Illicit Tobacco Taskforce (ITTF). Established in 2018, the ITTF aims to protect Commonwealth revenue by targeting, disrupting, and dismantling SOC syndicates involved in illicit tobacco. The task force has extensive legislative powers to investigate and prosecute these groups.
ACIC’s intelligence activities focus on:
- Domestic manufacturing capabilities.
- Illicit tobacco importation, distribution, and money laundering.
- Identifying source countries and SOC group involvement.
Firearms
The ACIC estimates that the illicit firearm market in Australia contains approximately 200,000 firearms, a reduction from the 2016 estimate. This market includes 190,000 long-arms and 10,000 handguns. Due to the clandestine nature of the market, its exact size is difficult to measure. The revised estimate is based on various intelligence sources, such as historical and updated firearm importation figures, seizure trends, and the number of firearms surrendered during Commonwealth, state, and territory amnesties. ACIC’s mission-critical intelligence enhances the understanding of firearm supply methodologies used by organised crime groups, the vulnerabilities these groups exploit, the illicit manufacture of handguns, and the role of firearm trace analysis in identifying how firearms are diverted to the illicit market. Additionally, ACIC addresses firearm issues by hosting firearm-related systems through its frontline services.
Victim-based crime
Victim-based crime includes human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, child sex tourism, and the possession, distribution, and production of child abuse material and online offences, with serious and organised crime groups heavily involved. Motivated by profit, these criminals exploit any opportunity to increase their earnings. In 2020-21, the Australian Institute of Criminology estimated that the cost of serious and organised crime involvement in child sexual abuse and human trafficking (excluding forced marriage) ranged from $296 million to $672.8 million. Human trafficking and modern slavery have become widespread criminal economies, aided by technological advancements and social media, which allow perpetrators to target, recruit, and exploit victims more efficiently and with reduced risk. The ACIC employs a wide range of capabilities to collect, analyse, and share critical intelligence to prevent and disrupt these criminal networks, supporting policy, regulatory, and legislative responses. Collaboration with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, such as the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, is essential to countering child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Key takeaways
The ACIC plays a vital role in making Australia hostile to criminal exploitation by focusing on eight priority crime themes: criminal networks, cybercrime, illicit drugs, national security, serious financial crime, illicit tobacco, firearms, and victim-based crime. Through comprehensive intelligence gathering, collaboration with national and international partners, and supporting policy and legislative initiatives, the ACIC effectively combats serious and organised crime. This multifaceted approach not only disrupts criminal activities but also enhances the safety and security of the Australian community.
