Methamphetamine manufactured throughout North America is overwhelming Australia — with Mexican drug cartels increasingly inundating the burgeoning market, authorities said.
Production of the illegal stimulant in Mexico, Canada and the United States now outpaces southeast Asian nations as Mexican organized crime syndicates flood Australia, where abusers consumed roughly 21,000 pounds from April 2022 to March 2023, Australian Federal Police said Saturday in a news release.
“Australia is an enticing market for organized crime groups who exploit our people to derive large profits,” AFP Commander Jared Taggart told reporters while citing Mexican cartels for the seismic shift.
Seizures of southeast Asian-produced methamphetamine in Australia have plummeted since 2021, and accounted for less than 15% of all busts in 2023, Taggart said.
At least 70% of Australia’s market for meth — a highly addictive stimulant when smoked, snorted or ingested — is supplied from North American sources, including Mexican drug traffickers.
Possible factors behind the surge include cheaper wholesale prices and increasingly complex ways to conceal drug shipments, Taggart said.
In February 2023, authorities in Australia seized more 1.1 tons of liquid meth hidden inside more than 8 tons of shampoo shipped from Mexico City en route to Sydney. Just months later, Mexico seized 4 tons of liquid methamphetamine concealed in bottles of tequila as the shipment was headed to Brisbane.
The amount of meth destined for Australia in the record-setting April 2023 bust was more than 50% larger than the previous seizure, Taggart said.
Other huge drug shipments bound for Australia in recent years include 1.8 tons of liquid methamphetamine hidden inside coconut water, which was discovered by authorities in Hong Kong in October 2022.
The cache, initially uncovered by Australian Federal Police officers, had been shipped from Mexico, authorities said.
In 2022-23, more than 23.6 tons of North American-produced meth bound for Australia was seized by AFP investigators, including 19.3 tons confiscated offshore.
Wholesale quantities of meth sell for as low as $1,000 per kilogram in Mexico City, while commanding as much as $5,000 in Yangon, Myanmar, providing huge incentives for international organized crime groups.
“Additionally, the AFP and our global partners have arrested and prosecuted key members of a significant Asian organized crime syndicate in October 2020 and January 2021,” Taggart said, adding the agency has investigators in 33 nations worldwide.
“We will continue to disrupt the criminal environment both onshore and offshore to ensure life-threatening drugs are not entering the Australian community,” he continued.
In the United States, Mexican drug cartels are the primary manufacturers and distributors of meth, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The stimulant, also known among abusers as crank or speed, is highly addictive and can lead to convulsions, stroke or death.
A multi-agency investigation last month by the NYPD, New York State Police and DEA led to the arrest of two suspected drug traffickers with apparent ties to Mexico.
Nearly 40 pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine worth more than $1.1 million were seized during the Hell’s Kitchen bust on March 12.
Suspects Jovanny Salas, 29, and Sergio Peralta, 34, who allegedly have links to Mexico, were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance following the probe at 550 W. 54th Street, a luxury residential building where the massive illegal stash was recovered.
