Brisbane Drug Trafficking and Drug Importation Offences and Evidence

When the Australian Federal Police and Queensland Police Service liaise with Border Force on a drug trafficking or importation offence in Brisbane, highly effective surveillance and interception capabilities are deployed. Border force take advantage of a lack of understanding of legislation controlling the arrivals lounge, to intimidate inbound passengers into believing they don’t have any rights in this ‘international space’. The law in this regard is questionable and should be tested. Passengers arriving into Brisbane International Airport can be deliberately targeted from as early as the time the manifest is lodged by their airline, triggering a task with border force at the airport with ample time to prepare, which in turn allows that passenger to be closely monitored and disrupted from the moment they leave the plane. The inbound passenger may think they are participating in a random search. They will be pulled aside and ‘randomly’ searched and their baggage x-rayed. Any citizen, let alone one accused of drug trafficking coming into Brisbane needs to be particularly careful about providing access to their phones and the pins to unlock them, as there is no power to specifically require this without a warrant. These days a smart phone is a personal computer, and all manner of material is available, effectively unlocking evidence into an individual’s life. One needs to be aware of law enforcement embarking on a fishing expedition, seeking to obtain evidence that they could not have hoped to build through lawful means. Recently the use of such powers by border force officers in international terminals was ventilated at the Brisbane Supreme Court level in pre-trial s 590AA hearings on a drug importation of a commercial quantity charge. The issues were not satisfactorily resolved in my view. When facing a drug trafficking or drug importation charge in Brisbane, consult with Justin Sibley Brisbane Crime Lawyer as quickly as possible to determine if evidence should be excluded.