Behind the White Line: Top DEA agent’s explosive claims about cartel activity in Australia

A veteran US Drug Enforcement Administration agent believes Australia should adopt American anti-Mafia racketeering laws to combat drug kingpins. Paul Larsen, part of the DEA team that prosecuted infamous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, told the Behind the White Line podcast that Australian police would benefit from new laws to enable them to charge crime syndicate bosses who got others to do their dirty work. He said that too often in Australia, crime-syndicate foot soldiers and low-level dealers were being busted for drug trafficking, while their bosses reaped the profits without facing as much risk. The US introduced the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act in 1970 to take on Mafia bosses who escaped prosecution because they made sure the lower-ranked members of their group were committing the actual crimes. The RICO Act allows police to arrest and charge a person for displaying a pattern of criminal behaviour, rather than requiring them to prove their direct involvement in a specific offence. “RICO-type laws allow you to use prior bad acts by members of the organisation done in furtherance of the organisation’s goals,” Mr Larsen said. “It allows more things to come in and now, depending on your perspective, you know, the defence (lawyers) certainly wouldn’t agree with it. “But from a prosecution standpoint, it allows you to portray what they would say is a more accurate picture of that particular individual, that particular group, and the activities that they’re doing.” Former federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged to introduce RICO-style laws if he was successful at last year’s election. But the Albanese Government said existing laws were sufficient to fight organised crime. Mr Larsen, who worked closely with Australian law enforcement between 2013 and 2018 at the DEA, said Australian police were hampered by “too much red tape” when it came to getting proactive investigations established in quick fashion. He said while existing legislation looked good in theory, it was often different in practice. “I mean, the police shouldn’t have to ask permission to act like police, and so, I mean that that’s . . . one of the aspects that I think stands in the way of Australian law enforcement being as effective as they could be,” he said. Mr Larsen said international drug cartels were increasingly targeting Australia because of the high prices people were prepared to pay for drugs, and the low risk of being extradited to face charges here. “My impression is that Australia as a country benefited from its geographical isolation for a lot of years when the world wasn’t so interconnected, and that’s been great for Australia,” he said. ”However, as the world has shrunk, criminal organisations are becoming much more adept at getting places and being able to thrive in locations where they may not have had such a historical foothold. “And I think what has happened in Australia is that the upper levels of the police and the politicians didn’t see those smoke signals . . . starting to rise through the decades. And now Australia is in a situation where some of these criminal organisations can operate with a lot more impunity than they probably should.” To combat the growing threat of organised crime, Mr Larsen called on Australian police forces to trust each other more and to stop withholding information from one another. His comments come after the Behind the White Line podcast revealed the extraordinary tensions between the Australian Federal Police and the West Australian police over a DEA-instigated sting involving 2.4 tonnes of Mexican cartel cocaine. Documents obtained by the podcast show some of the highest ranked AFP officers were involved in a sustained effort over several weeks to undermine the legality of Operation Beech — the WA police and DEA operation which prevented 2.4 tonnes of cocaine from arriving in Australia. The AFP also complained to the head of the DEA and the then-US Ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, about the actions of the American agents working with the WA Police. The two agents were sent home from Australia in March 2023 following the AFP complaints. In response, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch wrote to Ms Kennedy to praise the work of the agents.