Customs in online drug take-down

James Riley
Friday, 07 May 2010 20:56

IT Policy - Regulation

A Customs and Border Protection operation that monitored online pharmaceutical suppliers has led to raids on four houses in Adelaide that found 35,000 cold and flu tablets as part of a suspected pseudoephedrine importing syndicate.

Customs has now issued a general public warning for people not to order cold and flu tablets online, saying it was now targeting such commercial services as part of its circumvention operations.

Pseudoephedrine is found in many cold and flu tablets and is a precursor drug used in the production of illicit amphetamine products.

The raid, last Tuesday, led to several computers, mobile phones and other evidence related to the alleged pseudoephedrine imports being seized.

The seizures were the largest ever to result from Customs' increased online surveillance activities.

Home Affairs Minister Brendon O'Connor said the 35,000 tablets could have about 4kg of the active agent, pseudoephedrine.

"Customs and Border Protection monitors importations from online pharmacies and this significant seizure is a credit to the work of (it's) online targeting group," Mr O'Connor said.

"We have to ensure that people understand that it is unlawful to order online significant quantities of pseudoephedrine," he said.

"Even 28 tablets could be viewed as a marketable quantity, and therefore people need to understand that they cannot order bulk tablets online and expect law enforcement agencies not to respond."