Customs target steroids in new air crackdown
- Friday, 09 February 2007
DID actor Sylvester Stallone, star of many action movies, bring steroids into Australia? The recent headliner incident had all the trappings of Sly’s movie scripts, featuring a Customs intervention at Sydney International and subsequent drama, including allegations that the entourage travelling with him on his private jet had been seen tossing items out of a hotel window.
This prompted a Customs raid on the five-star hotel — not the sort of image the well-known brand is keen to project! — but Stallone was not detained and later described the incident as a misunderstanding.
The bizarre incident drew public attention to a steroids importing problem which is beginning to impact the air freight industry.
At least one air shipment of steroids has been intercepted recently at an Australian airport and there is anecdotal evidence more is coming into the country that way.
In the past, most steroid imports have been in personal luggage or by mail, but good work by Customs has made these channels increasingly unsafe. There have also been signs that the use of air cargo to move such substances is an international trend, considered as having a lower risk factor.
Now Customs has signalled a crack-down on smuggling of performance-enhancing drugs into Australia.
“In the last six months, Customs has detected and investigated a large number of such attempts,” said Richard Janeczko, national manager investigations for Australian Customs.
“This is a serious offence — importers can face fines of up to $100,000 and/or imprisonment for five years.”
Steroids were discovered at Melbourne Airport’s air cargo terminal on February 9 when Customs officers examined a consignment that had arrived on a flight from Thailand. Cans purporting to contain almonds were found to be packed with a large number of coloured tablets identified as anabolic steroids.
A residential address in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs was the target of a subsequent search and seizure warrant.
