AFP involvement in drug trafficking
As background to Winchester’s murder the following extract from the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Hansard for Thursday 17 May 1990 is illuminating.
Mr. HATTON (South Coast): I move:
(1) That this House calls upon the State Government to request the Federal Government to appoint a Royal Commission to investigate the activities of the Mafia with terms of reference which would focus upon-
(a) the involvement of the Australian Federal police and the New South Wales police with the Mafia in the illegal growing of marijuana crops on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and in the Brindabella ranges in the Australian Capital Territory;
(b) corruption involving the cultivation and distribution of marijuana in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and in particular the Griffith area; and
(c) the relationship of all the above with the death of Mr Winchester and related allegations of police corruption and any commonality of personal interests involved therein.
(2) That the New South Wales Government offer full co-operation and support for the conduct of such a Royal Commission; and
(3) That senior experienced officers from Scotland Yard be called in and that the Victorian Police Force be requested to provide personnel to form an independent investigative body to assist the Royal Commissioner appointed to report on such matters.
This is the gravest matter that I have ever raised. The second most senior police officer in our country has been assassinated. More than 10 crops of marijuana, worth tens of millions of dollars, were grown on the South Coast and Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and in the Australian Capital Territory, some of them with police knowledge and or involvement. There was mafia and other criminal involvement with police in illegal marijuana-growing operations.
For seven years senior State and Federal police have been and are involved in a massive cover-up and conspiracy of silence to avoid responsibility for illegal acts. Judge Foord has links with organised crime and the marijuana industry. There are serious questions about the efficiency of the National Crime Authority. There is an absence of effective structures which, together with incompetence and lack of political commitment, has allowed organised crime to flourish, especially in the marijuana industry. There is a danger to my life. An attempt was made to bug a committee room of the Australian Parliament to listen in on secret discussions involving the National Crime Authority.
There is a lack of political and administrative will to pursue the illegalities of police action in a multimillion dollar marijuana-growing operation. Bungling and corruption have been involved and people have profited from it. Attention is focused on whistleblowers rather than the illegality of police activity. All this has happened despite important legislative advances-they are not inconsiderable-such as the confiscation of the proceeds of crime and the Independent Commission Against Corruption that were put in place by this Government.
After what I reveal today, if this Government does not give unstinting and unqualified support to the establishment of a Federal royal commission as outlined and, because of sensitivities within the police force or the police ministry concerning outside investigations, this Government slides away from its responsibilities in this awesome matter, it will commit political suicide and stand condemned for its lack of courage. I do not believe it will but I have not taken the risks and carried the burdens this far to be denied. This is just the beginning (my emphasis).
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