Annual Report - COMPLETE - Australian Crime Commission

Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR)
The ACC produced the Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR) as an evolution of the
Australian Illicit Drug Report (AIDR), previously produced by the former ABCI. The
IDDR provided a law enforcement oriented statistical overview of drug arrests,
seizures and detection. Data was provided by federal, state and territory police as
well as forensic laboratories and ACS. It is the only report in Australia that publicly
disseminated nationally agreed illicit drug data and provided law enforcement and
interested stakeholders with a national picture of the illicit drugs market.
The statistical information in the IDDR helps national law enforcement, government
and stakeholders understand the illicit drug environment in Australia and also
provides the data necessary to assess possible future illicit drug trends. The annual
publishing of the IDDR supports United Nations reporting requirements for national
law enforcement illicit drug statistics.
Although the IDDR was a significant departure from the AIDR, it has continued to be
well received by law enforcement agencies, government and the interested parties.
The 2003–04 iteration of the IDDR will include greater levels of qualitative information
on the illicit drug situation in Australia.
Key findings of the IDDR included:
• more than nine tonnes of illicit drugs were seized in Australia in 2002–03 in over
46,830 seizures;
• cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Australia;
• MDMA border detections have been increasing since the mid-1990s, with weight
of detections increasing since 1999-2000;
• there was an increase in the seizure of amphetamine-type stimulants and an
increase in its availability;
• heroin seizures and heroin-related arrests increased;
• there has been a relative decline in cocaine purity seized since 1997-98 and a
significant drop in the number of arrests in 2002–03 compared with 2001-02;
and
• there was a decline in the number of seizures of performance-and-image-
enhancing drugs for the first time since reporting began in 1994-95.
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Alert on methodology to disguise blank credit cards to avoid detection
A timely Alert released by the ACC in May 2004 related to a concealment methodology
of counterfeit credit cards that the ACC detected as part of Project Carlby.
The alert provided invaluable information to the AFP regarding a suspect involved
in the manufacture of counterfeit credit cards and the concealment of blank cards
being shipped to Australia. The dissemination significantly progressed the AFP’s
understanding of this syndicate’s activities.
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36 I ACC ANNUAL REPORT 2003–04