"Australian airport staff 'smuggling drugs'"

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Airport staff 'smuggling drugs'
By Martin Chulov and Jonathan Porter
The Australian


WORKERS at the nation's largest airport, including baggage handlers with
high-level security clearances, have been involved in drug-smuggling and
stealing from passengers, according to a classified Customs report that also
suggests staff pose a terrorism threat.

A probe by investigators into airport workers from toilet cleaners to pilots
has found evidence of alleged criminal conspiracies between groups of
employees with access to the most secure areas of Sydney airport. 
The report, obtained by The Australian, details serious security breaches
and illegal activity by baggage handlers, air crew, ramp and trolley
workers, security screeners and cleaners. 

It says baggage handlers have diverted bags containing large amounts of
narcotics from incoming international flights to domestic baggage carousels,
sometimes changing baggage tags, to avoid Customs examination. 

"Baggage handlers are suspected of large-scale pillage and may use the roof
area to gain illegal entry to passenger baggage," the report says. 

The roster system makes it easy for baggage handlers to get their "mates"
working in the same gang, it says. 

But the report, completed in September last year, provides no direct
evidence to support convicted marijuana smuggler Schapelle Corby's defence
that drugs were planted in her luggage by corrupt baggage handlers between
Brisbane and Sydney. 

The Customs investigation found no evidence of domestic drug-smuggling
between Australian airports. 

It found Customs checks on aircrew were relatively rare despite evidence
showing that they were "an extremely high risk". "Intelligence from other
law enforcement agencies suggests that some Asian-recruited Qantas crew may
be involved in the importation of narcotics and are current subjects of
alerts," it says. 

The report says 39 security screeners out of 500 employed at the airport
have a serious criminal conviction, with a further 39 having been convicted
of minor matters. It says 14 had questionable immigration status and two
were referred to the Department of Immigration as illegal immigrants. 

A well-placed Customs source told The Australian yesterday that
investigators continue to uncover numerous "black spots" in the maze of
baggage tunnels beneath the airport, which cannot be captured by
surveillance cameras. 

The black spots were allegedly known to baggage handlers and other employees
and used as dropping-off points for drug importations. 

The two Customs operations, dubbed Tempest and Berlap, targeted two groups
of baggage handlers, each working in a gang of six. Investigators dubbed one
the "Anglo Saxons" and the other the "Swarthies" - a reference to their
Mediterranean appearance. 

The Customs source said executives had been sent a copy of the report last
September, but did not appear to have acted on it. 

The source claimed senior Customs staff were furious about the report's
findings and suggested that commercial considerations within the airport may
be a reason for a delayed response. 

"We have people that don't want to rock the boat and nothing upsets the
running of an airport more than the outing of staff who have very strong
unions behind them. If we took one person out there is no way that could
happen without disrupting the travel of 30,000 people." 

One of the gangs is alleged by investigators to have been involved in the
importation late last year of 10kg of cocaine, which was removed from the
baggage processing system before it could be X-rayed.

The report claims that ramp workers and baggage handlers were linked to
Eastern Suburbs drug smuggling syndicates. 

Officials monitoring the gang became aware of the pending importation, which
was due to arrive on Lan-Chile flight 801, on October 7. Only several of the
alleged gang were rostered on. The remainder, according to officials,
appeared noticeably excited. 

However, the importation was delayed for 24 hours and eventually arrived on
Aerolinas Argentinas flight 1881 on October 8, the same day Corby's baggage
passed through Sydney airport en route to Bali. 

One official said the scenario used during numerous earlier importations had
been for the smuggler to check in last, meaning their bag was left outside
the baggage crate stored in the plane's cargo hold. 

The loose bag is typically removed first from the plane in Sydney and placed
on a luggage trolley in between the secured crates carrying passenger
luggage. It then begins a 600m journey through the airport basement
corridors that lead to the baggage dispensing area. 

The official, speaking on condition of anonimity, claimed the drugs are
removed from the bag, in a process known as ratting, at one of three
blind-spots along the way. They are hidden there before later being removed
from the airport. 

The official said hours of footage had been recorded by surveillance cameras
of lower-level criminality within secure areas of the airport, ranging from
stealing valuables from suitcases, to using passenger bags to smuggle goods
stolen abroad. 

Since 1995, the Australian Federal Police has also run its own
investigation, known as Operation Bareena, into alleged criminality at the
airport. 

Customs said it could not comment on its operations. A spokeswoman for
Sydney Airport Corporation said it co-operated closely with Customs and law
enforcement agencies, but had not heard of operations Tempest or Berlap. 

The report notes the difficulties experienced by Customs offers in tracking
much of the activity in the airport or identifying staff on duty. 

It says baggage handlers rosters allow shift swapping and the use of airport
personnel to perform overtime away from their usual work station. 

"The work practice of some airport employees to organise their own
replacements has to be regarded as very dubious when seen under the guise of
internal conspiracies," the report says. 

"The rostering system, which groups work gangs together, facilitates the
possibility of organised crime or internal conspiracies being operated." 

Union activity often makes surveillance difficult, the report says. 

"Very strong union presence on the tarmac area and the ever threatening
intervention of union delegates ... is always fraught with controversy," it
says. 

Attached Photo:

Drugs ... Cocaine is concealed in the lining of a suit bag

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