Why Cassie Sainsbury was allegedly targeted Colombian drug cartels are t...

Why Cassie Sainsbury was allegedly targeted Colombian drug cartels are targeting Australia



TRAFFICKING cocaine out of Colombia is big business. And Australia is the drug cartels’ most profitable market.

It’s the most lucrative destination for traffickers because we have the highest international prices for cocaine. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commissions estimates that a gram of cocaine fetches $A250-900 in Australia, at least 100-200% more than the European average.

But that’s not the only reason Colombia’s cocaine is heading here. Colombian drug cartels look to Australia out of necessity. As the power of the infamous Colombian cartels of the 80s and 90s diminished, Mexico has established itself as the new power and gained control of the US market.

So according to Colombian narcotics expert Ariel Avila, Australia along with Brazil, Argentina and South Africa, is of increasing importance for the Colombian cartels.

“In recent years Colombian narco-traffickers have sought new routes and markets for drugs, fundamentally because Mexican cartels have control of the United States”, he told news.com.au.

“Before these markets were of little importance, but all the time their significance is growing.”

THE RISE OF FOREIGN DRUG MULES

But, Australia, being an island, is far harder to access than Colombia’s other export markets. Unlike the US or Europe, the traffickers have few options at their disposal besides transporting via plane.

In addition, Colombia continues to step up the sophistication of its anti-narcotics practices, meaning traffickers are always looking for new methods of sneaking the substance out of the country. These alternatives increasingly involve foreign mules.

“The drug mules of the 80s and 90s were generally affiliated with, or were part of criminal organisations,” said Avila. “But these individuals were increasingly easier to catch and thus the cartels began targeting unemployed men and women, young people — anyone with financial problems”.

Now, as smuggling cocaine has become yet tougher for Colombian mules, narco-traffickers increasingly look for foreigners to recruit. Being foreign, they are less suspicious to authorities and thus less likely to be searched.

According to Avila, these individuals are usually Spanish or Americans with economic issues, but increasingly new nationalities are drawn in, like Australians, and not all have financial problems. The boom in Colombian tourism has fuelled this trend with the majority of mules being recruited on the ground while they are travelling.

“Groups often target these individuals at heavy drug-filled parties. They do not have to have economic problems, increasingly they are individuals on vacation in Colombia who just want to make some easy money, and perhaps spend an extra couple of months on vacation”.

Traffickers find their targets and ask if they want to make large sums of money easily and quickly. “It is very simple”, summarises Avila. “A gram of cocaine leaving Colombia could be worth $25-$30. There in Australia, it is worth $200.”

Although young males aged 20-33 years are the typical profile, Avila notes an increase in the number of young women.

“All the time there are more women trafficking drugs. The tendency is increasingly shifting”.

Latin American research institutes currently estimate around 30% of drug trafficking arrests to be female, but the number is creeping up, possibly as female travellers are less suspicious than their male counterparts.

TRICKED?

In cases such as Cassie Sainsbury’s, there remains the question as to whether these individuals were aware they were trafficking drugs. There is a possibility that some mules are tricked into trafficking unknowingly. Sainsbury has maintained that she did not know that there were drugs in her luggage.

There is one tactic known as the “Cambiaso”, for example, whereby someone distracts an unsuspecting victim and swaps their luggage for another laden with drugs.

But most individuals are well aware of what they are doing. As the head of Anti-Narcotics Police at Bogota’s El Dorado airport previously stated: “Everyone who is caught says exactly the same thing.

Cases where traffickers tip off the police with a “false positive” are not uncommon; one individual is framed so that all the other mules can pass unfazed.



Those who get through employ a variety of tactics which include using bags with false compartments, or taping packages tightly to their feet or legs. Some girls conceal the drugs in their vagina, or more dangerously, ingest them, at the risk of the bag leaking at the expense of the individual’s life.

In some cases, mules are forced into trafficking drugs. In 2014, Canadian citize