WEBVTT - Bringing it Home | 8 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 I've said this once before. It's not your problem until 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.320 it's your problem. I think what we've seen in the 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.239 past is people will see, you know, these organized crime 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.280 groups having conflict within themselves, and it's okay, that's okay, 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.880 it's over there, it doesn't affect me. But when you're 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.759 having these sorts of shootings occurring where it's close to 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.720 playgrounds or shopping car parks and it is close to you, 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:43.840 it is then your problem. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:50.640 So this is it. This is the end of the line. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.440 You last heard from my colleague News Corp Australia's national correspondent, 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.080 Stephen Drill back in episode three when he was in 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:03.600 a Narco tunnel underneath the US Mexico border. But right 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.000 now he's standing alone on a road full of multimillion 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:12.320 dollar properties where there's one that really stands out. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.919 This house is like it kind of looks like a spaceship. 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:18.320 It's it's beautiful. 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:21.839 Stephen's back home in Australia. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.400 I'm in a street in Melbourne. It's the city where 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.679 I live. You might call this a leafy area. A 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:34.200 leafy area is shorthand here in Melbourne for posh. The 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.679 street is full of very old English trees, and I'm 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.399 standing in the shade of one, which is good for 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:41.120 my lack of hair. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.679 Despite the tree cover, it's still hot out. The sun 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.840 is fierce in the blue sky. Growing up in Australia myself, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.160 I can remember just how hot it gets. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:58.080 Black Wall, Black Gate. The door set well back just 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.960 the underground garage here would probably be bigger than my 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:02.920 entire house. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:09.120 The house has white wolves, a home, cinema, a gym, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.919 and big glass windows overlooking its private pool. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.360 Now I'm just walking up to the front door. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.880 I mean, this place looks like it's worth ten million dollars, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.560 which is exactly what it was bought for just last 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.640 year by a man police allege is a member of 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.000 a money laudering syndicate called Long River. 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.040 The Long River Operation allegedly laundered hundreds of millions of 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:34.800 Ossie dollars. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:37.840 And I'm just about to knock on the door of 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.640 this ten million dollar house that is alleged to be 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:41.799 the proceeds of crime. 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:50.760 Stephen reaches out, presses the button on the intercom. His 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:51.840 heart beats faster. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:56.360 No answer. 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.480 As a journalist doing these jobs, we even know what 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.400 kind of reaction you'll get on a doorknock like this. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.240 What the police are saying is that people living here 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:13.800 brought this swanky property with criminal profits. 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:21.160 Nothing. I'll try again, but this. 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:33.000 Time someone answers. I'm Fiona Hamilton and from The Times, 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.000 The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. This is the 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:43.920 final episode of Cocaine Inc. Episode eight, bringing it Home. 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.000 So far in this series, I've been to Columbia and 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.320 Mexico looking at where the cocaine business starts in the 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.880 coca plantations and how the drug is exported. Fiona went 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.800 to the Netherlands, where ports like Rotterdam act as distribution 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.320 hubs for this global industry. David was in Northwest England 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.520 looking at the retail arm of the business, the street 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.200 level dealers. Then he followed the money trailed to Dubai, 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.360 which led to a maze of different companies dealing in 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.919 gold investment and trading. It felt like we lost the 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.760 trail at that point. What do the world's cocaine bosses 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.440 actually do with the money they've made from their crimes? 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.080 Does criminal money end up buying beautiful homes in suburban 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.200 streets in cities like the one where I live? Trying 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.480 to answer that question is how I ended up back 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.480 home in Australia standing outside his house looking at how 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.280 those allegedly involved in organized crime take their profits and 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:52.920 spend it. 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.200 Hi, my name's Stephen Drill, journalist. I just was wondering 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.400 if the place has been seized by the police or 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:06.640 what's happening with it now. 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.359 I just wanted to touch base. Are you the owner 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.320 of the property? 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:18.040 Okay, so I don't have permission to record, meaning you're 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.080 not going to hear the conversation. I can't see the 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.960 person I'm speaking to, but it's a woman. I guess 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:26.040 she's in her thirties. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:28.600 She sounds weary. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.599 I try explaining how the Federal Police have just rated 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.599 twelve high street money exchange stores across the country and 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.599 are saying this house is linked to them. They're calling 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.840 it the most significant money laundering investigation in Australia's history. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:47.480 The police allege the. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.560 Company operated a bit like a bank, providing a system 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:56.520 for customers to transfer money in and out of the country. Only, 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:01.479 according to police, some of the customers will organize criminals 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:03.360 and their money. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.039 Hundreds of millions allegedly. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:10.839 Came from cyber scamps and what the cops call trafficking 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:15.320 illicit goods, which would be the kind of business we 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.240 followed around the world in this series. At the front 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:20.520 door of the ten million dollar. 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.800 House, the woman I'm talking to seems to hesitate, and 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.320 a man takes over the conversation. He doesn't say who 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.120 he is. When I ask, he says, they don't know 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.880 anything about police rates. They've just moved in and they're 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.719 only tenants, he says. The owners aren't at home right now, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:45.960 so they can't talk. Puzzled and disappointed, I say thanks 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:47.280 and walk back out. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:56.280 But something's nagging at me. So there's someone living in there. 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:02.080 Now, let's go and see what else there is here. 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:03.680 I'll just come knock on the neighbor's door. 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:08.600 Now, this might seem weird trying to talk to the neighbors, 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.600 but as a journalist, I've lost track of the number 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.960 of stories I've got just by knocking on doors. Does 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.160 anybody else in the neighborhood know something anything? When you're 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.400 working on a story like this, you never know what 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.920 tiny bit of information might be the missing piece that 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.080 helps you solve the puzzle. And I want to know 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.720 how this house might be caught up in the Long 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.800 River Syndicate. So I try some neighbors doors. 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.800 The dog is certainly home there, but it's a little 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.239 white fuck your dog. Nothing too scary, which can happen 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:46.320 sometimes on door knocks. 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:48.480 But I'll keep moving. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.400 Because all I know is what the federal police are saying, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.520 that the Long River Syndicate provide organized crime a way 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.600 to move their money here without it being traced by 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.560 the authorities. Money that could have come from allegedly trafficking, 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.640 A list of goods which could be drugged, like cocaine. Now, 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:15.080 the house immediately next door, she has a some string 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:16.000 tied around the gates. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.920 It doesn't look like you can come into that one. 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.960 Hell from there, I just pressed the doorbell, see if 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:25.720 anyone comes out. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.640 Do you understand why I think the effort is worth it, 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.880 spending hours in the hot sun knocking on strangers doors. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.280 I need to take you back a few days to 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.520 when I got a call from a source. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.680 This call was unusual. The source said something was going 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:49.160 to happen. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.319 I can't tell you too much about it, but they. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:51.920 Wouldn't say what. 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.360 They just said to be free on a certain day, 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:01.040 so I knew it was going to be big. In 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.280 the meantime, I waited, I kept looking at the cocaine business, 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:07.960 which seems to be on a bull run. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.800 In the almost thirty years I've been in law enforcement 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.920 and intelligence, I haven't seen the scale of cocaine that 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.760 we've seen consistently hitting our shores in the last twelve 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.480 to twenty four months before in my career. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:29.079 This is Matt Rippon, Deputy CEO Intelligence at the Australian 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.880 Criminal Intelligence Commission or ACIC. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.720 The main reason is because of the profit margin to 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:38.800 be made. There are a lot of logistics and arrangements 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.600 that need to be made between uplift from the style 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:47.640 of coca leaf in Columbia, for example, to make it 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.880 all the way to the streets of Sydney or Melbourne, etc. 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.080 So it's a real global enterprise. 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.040 We're talking in Matt's headquarters. It's a hard place to find. 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:03.720 There's no marking on the bill. Security is tight inside 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:09.119 these walls. Law enforcement spy and criminals. They access messages, 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.239 monitor the movement of people and cocaine. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.720 The law enforcement actually been really successful in recent years 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:21.800 in seizing some really large consignments of cocaine. You may 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:26.360 recall one point eight ton of cocaine was actually seized 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:27.600 in Peru. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:30.400 One point eight tons. 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.040 I do some mental calculations, as I learned at the 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:39.120 port in Cardagena back in episode three, the value of 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.640 cocaine changes depending on where it is in the global 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:48.960 supply chain. In Peru, where it was seized, that one 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.679 point eight tons might have been worth around five million 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:59.000 US dollars. Wholesale, it's almost four million pounds or seven 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.080 and a half million is STI dollars. While the time 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.160 it's trafficked all the way to Australia and sold by 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.000 the gram on the streets of Sydney or Melbourne. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.640 That value rises by a lot. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.040 It could be worth more than three quarters of a 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:19.400 billion dollars US over six hundred million pounds or one 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:30.280 point two billion Ousie dollars. Another way of looking at 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.600 it is that much cocaine would be enough to supply 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.600 every user in Australia for six months. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.080 That seizure was actually linked to one of the highest 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.520 level threats to this country. So attached to that syndicate, 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.920 you had another one point one ton of cocaine that 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.120 came into New South Wales from Panama. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.000 When he talks about high level threats to the country. 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.880 Matt means it much of Australia's cocaine import are thought 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.320 to be linked to an international cartel known as the Kinahans, 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.520 the Irish cocaine cowboys, who are currently thought to be 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.360 in the United Arab Emirates. The Kinahans are being investigated 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.800 around the world, including over links to the Islamic militant 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.720 group Hezbollah and Iran's intelligence services. In twenty twenty two, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.679 the US government offered a five million dollar bounty for 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.079 information leading to the arrests of the gang's leaders. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.800 Buzz of today, the Kinahan transnational criminal organization joins the 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:42.960 ranks of Italy's Camorra, Mexico's Los Zetas, Japan's Yakaza, and 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.840 Russia's Thieves and Law Also as of today, the result 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.199 of these sanctions, these individuals are immediately served from the 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:55.240 US financial system and any assets brought property under US 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:56.920 jurisdiction are immediate blocked. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.079 At this moment, the Kinahans the suspective of hiding out 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.959 in Dubai, where David was in the last episode. Together, 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:10.480 these different interlinked criminal groups represent a huge international challenge 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.160 to any single police. 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.720 Force in twenty twenty three. In February, you had two 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.800 back to back large cocaine importations, three hundred kilo importation 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.560 off the coast of Western Australia, and then you had 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.400 three point two ton seased in New Zealand. 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.320 That's a lot of money in one shipment. That's billions 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.440 of dollars of street value. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.920 It is billions of dollars. And the interesting thing here 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.960 is that because of the profit margin that can be 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.240 made from coca leaf all the way through to finished 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:48.080 product on the ground, they can afford to lose a 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.040 particular consignment. It's not a good outcome for them, but 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.040 they actually factor in losses into their business model like 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:56.920 any good company structure would. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.000 Fact In Rotterdam, where Fiona was in episode four of 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:09.160 this series, research suggests authorities sees just over half of 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.120 all drug shipments. Other law enforcement people I speak to 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.360 say the average might be less. Roughly one in four 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:22.600 cocaine shipments is picked up. Either way, the cocaine traffickers 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.120 still make a profit, although that doesn't stop them lashing 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.000 out when a shipment is lost. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:32.320 Good morning, first of breaking Years, and we are three 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.080 hours into a gangland man hunt in Sydney. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:36.960 A man executed in Sydney. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.040 A bloody gang war has caused more than twenty deaths 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:40.880 in recent years. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.440 Another man hunt is under way tonight after the daylight 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.320 shooting of a former biking. 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.680 Sparked by a dispute over a missing shipment of cocaine, 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.440 now thought to have been seized by the Federal police. 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.160 A man has been shocked dead in a front yard 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.840 at Fairfield Heights in Sydney's Tit for Tat gangland war. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:06.840 Organized crime groups act like a genuinely global business, but 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.600 what we're seeing in the environment that's been somewhat different, 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.720 particularly in the last three to five years, has been 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.120 collaboration across organized crime groups that traditionally wouldn't work together. 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:23.880 We're seeing cocaine importations where you have Mexicans working with 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:28.760 Chinese organized crime, working with outlaw motorcycle gangs in Australia 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.480 to make sure that they compartmentalize their business appropriately to 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.320 protect the head of the syndicate, but also to make 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.000 sure that they capitalize on the capabilities that they all 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.080 have at various points in the supply chain. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.560 That complicated supply chain where cocaine can travel through several 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.920 different countries, passing between different criminal groups who are now 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:56.560 working together. That's a strength of the modern drug operation. 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.640 The person who's ultimately in charge is not exposed. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:02.480 He or she is like the. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.680 Chief executive, safe inside their boardroom, while different groups from 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.680 different countries handle all the actual work. 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:12.840 But listening to. 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.040 Matt, I learned that this is also a weakness because 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.800 the longer the chain becomes, the more weak links it contains, 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.280 meaning more opportunities for law enforcement to find those links 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:31.120 and break them. The day comes when my source had 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.520 told me something big is going to happen. Before dawn, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.120 hundreds of Australian Federal Police officers launch raids across the country. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.120 They see expensive looking cars and haul them away with 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.640 tow trucks, carry battering rams up to the gates of 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:54.240 expensive looking homes, and send uniform cops into twelve high 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:59.200 street money exchange stores in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.800 The stores are part of a national chain with bright 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:12.159 professional signs, shining white counters, smartly dressed staff and this 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.640 promotional video playing in the window. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:20.800 Niha Wa Shu Gary Hardgrave. For almost twelve years, I 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.280 was an elected representative in the Australian government five years 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.360 as a minister, including in immigration. As of twenty twenty two, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.560 I'm joining the board of Shunxiang Currency Exchange the further overseas. 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.679 And getting a former Australian government minister like Gary Hardgrave 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.560 to promote it would have seemed a real seal of 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:40.520 approval to the. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.399 Chang Jiang Currency Exchange to Australia. 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:49.960 Chang Yang is Mandarin Chinese, it translates as Long River. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.560 The Australian government has strong oversight, but shun Xiang Currency 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.679 Exchange has an even higher level of reliability, with water 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.800 tight security processes in place to guarantee the safety of 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:05.359 your facts. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:11.600 There's no suggestion Gary Hardgrave, the former government minister, knew 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.080 anything about what was allegedly going on at Changing. He's 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.960 not been accused of any wrongdoing and would later say 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.439 he'd cut all ties with the company and had no 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.760 day to day involvement in its operations. But this morning, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.760 looking at the scale of the police operation, the cops 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.719 walking out carrying computers and stacks of paperwork, it became 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.359 clear this really was as big a deal as my 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:37.280 source had promised. 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.520 This is the most significant and complex AFP led money 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.320 laundring investigation in the nation's history. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:51.080 This is Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Demeadow speaking 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.000 at a press conference following the raids in October twenty 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.919 twenty three. I'm sitting among the press pack, frantically typing 0:18:59.119 --> 0:18:59.960 to get down his work. 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.240 The AFP alleges the chang Jing Currency Exchange is a 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.439 front for a mining laundering syndicate that transfers dirty money 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.360 for large criminal enterprises. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.040 The police allege Changjang transferred over ten billion Aussie dollars 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.439 just over the past three years. That's over five billion 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.159 pounds or nearly seven billion US dollars. Most of that 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:30.280 was legal, the cops say, but they also allege criminals 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.000 were allowed to move money in and out of the 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.959 country by mixing it in with the legal transactions. In 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.000 this way, the Federal Police allege around two hundred and 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.479 twenty nine million Aussie dollars was laundered, money from what 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.160 police call a serious violent. 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:52.200 Act money laundering is not a victimless crime, and. 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.439 Also money from trafficking illicit goods. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.960 Even after more than twenty years in law enforcement and 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.920 as a former law myself. The amount of money allegedly 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:04.399 laundered still surprised me. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:10.959 The police call it an industrial scale operation. Seven people 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:15.480 were arrested in the raids. Some could face life imprisonment, 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:21.240 the cops say, although the accused insist they're innocent. According 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.119 to the cops, they'd been living the high life. I 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.760 keep typing taking it all in as the press conference continues. 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.960 By eating at Australia's most extravagant restaurants, drank wine and 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.520 saki values and the tens of thousands of dollars, traveled 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:41.440 on private jets and drove vehicles purchased for almost four 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.480 hundred thousand dollars. One alleged offender lived in a home 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.320 worth more than ten million dollars. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.879 That's the ten million dollar house, the one with the 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:56.359 gleaming white walls that looks something like a spaceship where 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.440 we started this episode. 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:01.359 Hi, how are you going? 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:03.199 My I's Steve on the journalists. 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.159 So, now that I know my source is correct and 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.880 this is a big deal, I want to know more 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:12.720 about this alleged money laundering operation. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:15.480 Hi. 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:17.600 My name's Stephen Drell. I'm a journalist. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.520 I just was wondering if the place has been seized 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.920 by the police, or what's happening with it now. I 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.439 just wanted to touch base. Are you the owner of 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:30.000 the property? 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.640 When the people inside so they can't help because they're 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.000 only tenants and have just moved in. I start talking 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:42.080 to the neighbors because if the cops are right and 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.359 this house was bought by people caught up in international 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:50.679 money laundering operation, then this could be the very last 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.520 step in the kind of global criminal business we've been 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:59.119 following ever since the Cokerfields in Colombia, where the money 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.200 made by organized crime gangs is moved into a new 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:08.159 country and those involved allegedly spend it on seemingly legitimate 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:16.040 purchases like fast cars and fancy houses or like this house. 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.040 Just wanted to talk about your neighbors. 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.399 Have you near people moved in recently? So I got 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:26.320 chatting to a neighbor. 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:32.000 Is there new tenants in the house or same people? 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.080 But there's no there has there been any removal trucks 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.320 or no removal trucks that's from the same people there. 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.800 Yeah, appreciate it. 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.119 It's hard to hear on the audio what the neighbor says, 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.120 but he's just told me he hasn't seen anybody moving 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:56.840 in recently, no removal trucks. Wondering about that, I stand 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.480 in the shade of a tree, get my phone out 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:04.160 and reread news reports of the police rate. Now I'm 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.720 just going back through the news articles because I think 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.560 I may have missed a trick here. I know that 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.040 there was a husband and wife who were arrested, so 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.560 I'm just going through now and checking which of the 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:22.520 people it might actually be. Now, there were three people 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:24.000 who were granted bail, and now I'm not going to 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:26.399 use their names here in this podcast, but there were 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:28.920 three people granded bars. So it's possible that the people 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:30.800 who were grounded batt are those people we just spoke 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:33.040 with on the intercom. 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:34.880 Perhaps weren't genants. 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:37.480 But were actually the people accused of being involved in 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:45.280 this money laundering syndicate. According to the police charge sheets 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.439 which were tended in court, the couple who bought this 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:50.760 house a part of what the police are calling the 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:55.640 Long River money laundering syndicate. That syndicate was named after 0:23:55.640 --> 0:23:58.480 the chain of Shining money exchange officers that were raided 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:03.240 last October. Investigators have traced millions going into the bank 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.320 accounts of one of the owners of this house. The 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.040 police also alleged that some of those who were arrested 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:13.760 coached others to create company structures and false documents to 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:18.439 conceal the proceeds of crime. The charge sheets use what 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.679 seems like the language of accountants talking about different businesses, 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:30.080 beneficiaries and assets, funds, transfer instructions, taxable declarations. This all 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.440 feels a long way from where I started this series 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:35.920 with Jose the Columbian police officer who lost his legs 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:45.600 to a landmine, fighting a bloody war in the drug plantations, A. 0:24:45.600 --> 0:24:46.440 War on drugs. 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:50.000 I mean times have changed the AFP, we don't focus 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:53.240 on commodity with matured our approach. 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:59.439 Kirsty Schofield is the Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner in 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:03.359 charge of the Forces Crime Command, meaning she oversaw the 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:08.119 investigation into alleged money laundering by the chang Xiang Currency Exchange. 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:13.920 In person, she's all smiles, tan skin. She could be 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:19.000 an Aussie surfer, but that hides an inner toughness. As 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:23.840 a detective, she worked CANi terrorism, an organized crime we 0:25:23.960 --> 0:25:27.439 caught up after the chang Xiang police raids, but it's 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:31.000 an open investigation. So Kirsty wasn't going to talk about it, 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:35.119 but from what she would tell me, it's obvious that 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:39.040 Kirsty knows the cocaine business. She's thought about it deeply. 0:25:40.119 --> 0:25:44.320 Any major cocaine bust that involves Australia or Australian police 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:48.560 based it over thirty offices worldwide comes across her desk. 0:25:49.600 --> 0:25:51.160 It's much bigger than a commodity. 0:25:51.280 --> 0:25:53.840 It is a global business and we really do look 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:55.280 at it as a whole business. 0:25:55.320 --> 0:25:56.840 We just don't target the drugs. 0:25:57.920 --> 0:26:02.400 Where this is relevant is the idea of accountants. Kirsty says, 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:05.240 there are professional criminal groups out there who provide a 0:26:05.320 --> 0:26:09.639 service to other crime gains, helping them process their profits, 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:13.840 moving money in and out of countries and taking a 0:26:13.920 --> 0:26:14.960