According to figures from the United Nations, Australia’s use of crystal methamphetamine is among the highest in the world. Recent news shows an increase in the amount of the drug that is being shipped into the country.
This month, police in Sydney arrested three people on charges of trying to smuggle more than half a ton of crystal methamphetamine into Australia from Mexico.
Law enforcement agents put the street value of the haul at nearly 100 million U.S. dollars.
Earlier this month,an elderly couple outside Melbourne signed for a package that was sent to the wrong address, and contained more than forty pounds of crystal meth – worth about 7 million U.S. dollars. Police followed up and made an arrest in the case — also finding about another forty pounds when they located the suspect.
Last month, Australian border enforcement agents found another thousand pounds of crystal meth smuggled in refrigerators from Singapore.
In February, police in New South Wales and Victoria states arrested half a dozen people in a plot to smuggle a ton and a half of crystal meth from California to Australia.
The Australian Crime Commission has said that crystal methamphetamine “poses the highest risk to communities” of any illegal substance in the country.
Earlier this year, an analysis of waste water around the country found that apart from alcohol, crystal meth is the most commonly-used drug in the country with nearly 10-million tons of it consumed in Australia in a year.
