Traffickers Using Amazon to Ship Meth to Australia

Methamphetamine seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility in San Diego County, Calif., on May 18, 2021. Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Methamphetamine has been discovered stashed away in decorative stones awaiting shipment to Australia from Amazon’s San Diego hub.

The decorative stones, normally used for gardens and model railways, was concealed in packaging labelled “ornamental stones,” according to U.S. federal agents.

Amazon and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) found at least five Amazon vendor accounts using the tech company’s international shipping services to traffic meth around the globe, with drug traffickers moving “kilogram quantities of controlled substances,” Forbes reported.

Another parcel containing five kilograms of meth destined for Australia was also discovered by Kentucky Customs and Border Protection on Oct. 28 ordered under a suspicious vendor account.

While on Oct. 31, Amazon and HSI agents in Michigan found a package with a label claiming to contain preowned slate stone for toy railways and garden pots. It concealed about six kilograms of meth.

Australia has the highest reported meth use per capita in the world, according to the latest data on illicit drug consumption released by the the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in June 2022.

According to a report from the Lowy Institute in February, the South Pacific has become an increasingly lucrative drug corridor, driven by cartels, criminal organisations, and local gangs.

“The Pacific is the principal transit route for the trafficking of drugs and chemical precursors bound from Asia and South America to Australia and New Zealand, where consumers pay some of the highest prices globally,” the report stated.

The illegal drug trade in Australia is estimated to be worth $11.3 billion (US$7.6 billion) per annum, the report said, with the drugs typically arriving by air. Alternative transport is by sea in containers and yachts, as well as light plane.

“The trafficking and trade in drugs in the Pacific is driven by five interconnected networks of actors: Chinese and Asian syndicates; Mexican and South American cartels; Australian organised crime; New Zealand organised crime; and local or hybrid indigenous drug gangs.”

In August, authorities found two tons of meth hidden in marble tiles shipped from the Middle East to Sydney in what police described as the largest-ever seizure of the illicit drug in the country. 

Three men were arrested after 1,649 pounds of the drug was found earlier this month hidden in 24 containers that arrived at Port Botany—a busy shipping port in Sydney, according to officials.