Clever crooks push Australian drug trade to new highs

Criminals using more inventive shipping methods and unregulated drug derivatives are pushing the figures on Australia's illegal drug trade to record levels.

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) counted 69,595 drug seizures in 2010/11, an increase of 43 per cent from 10 years before.

The number of busts is unprecedented during the decade of monitoring, but the amounts seized have been in decline, falling more than 30 per cent in the decade.

ACC chief executive John Lawler says this could point to greater use of the postal system by smugglers. "What criminals will look to do is to minimise risk," he said at the launch of the ACC's Illicit Drug Data Report 2010-11.

"And if they have small amounts with frequency, the chances are some of these packages will get through."

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said criminal intelligence amassed by authorities was responsible for 96 per cent of drug seizures at the border.

"In the last [year] we've seen criminals put heroin in herbal hair dye, we've seen cocaine in engine oil and Ecstasy in cleaning products."

Authorities also intercepted 25kg of heroin inside large bolts, 168kg packed inside a shipment of wooden doors, and 400kg seized from two yachts.

Employing chemists to get around Australian regulations by varying the composition of prohibited synthetic drugs is another ruse of drug suppliers.

Dr Michael Collins, head of the National Measurement Institute Forensic Laboratory, said a drop in Ecstasy imports coincided with a surge in the variant known as meow meow.

Cannabis remains the top drug in border seizures, accounting for 72 per cent.

- AAP