SYDNEY – Twenty-four people, many of them Chinese
nationals, have been arrested in Australia and charged with illegally importing
drugs, Australia’s anti-money laundering regulator say.

The suspects used Australian-based money transfer
operators to send funds offshore to pay for the drugs.

News of the arrests comes weeks after Reuters revealed
that risks of money laundering and underground fund-transfers were growing in
Australia after its major banks quit the remittance business.

“Many of those involved in the importations were
Chinese nationals, based in Australia,” the Australian Transaction Reports
and Analysis Centre (Austrac) said on its website.

“The Australian-based suspects used mobile phones and
the Internet, liaised with Chinese companies to organise drug
importations.”

It did not say when the arrests were made or identify any
of those arrested or specify what type of drugs were imported.

The suspects transferred funds between $1,000 to $10,000
from Australia, usually via a remittance dealer, to companies in China. These
companies then posted drugs to a variety of names and addresses in Australia,
Austrac said.

The Australia-based suspects sent funds to Chinese
companies or to “seemingly unrelated” Chinese individuals, making it
harder to link the beneficiary in China with the entity that actually sent
drugs, Austrac said.

If packages were intercepted, companies in China re-sent
the drugs using different sender and recipient information to avoid further
detection, it said.

Investigations also uncovered two clandestine drug
laboratories, Austrac said, adding police seized 73 kilograms of drugs, 145
parcels, about $153,000 in cash, counterfeit licences and improvised weapons.

In a separate announcement, Austrac said it cancelled the
registration of an affiliate of the United States money transfer giant Western
Union although it was not clear if it was involved in the crackdown.

The decision by Australia’s major banks to quit the
country’s $35 billion a year remittance business last year is driving
fund-transfers underground and exposing the country as a weak link in the
global fight against money laundering and financial crime, regulators,
operators who handle remittances and police said.

– Reuters