It is important I read this statement tonight because we know certain individuals, groups and organised crime are monitoring the public remarks made by the AFP.
I will use Senate Estimates tonight not just to inform you of the invaluable work of the AFP, but to send a clear message to organised crime about how we will disrupt their unlawful activities, including the importation of illicit tobacco.
Firstly, I will share some of our intelligence on the organised crime groups we are targeting.
Most illicit tobacco imported to Australia is coordinated by a small number of highly sophisticated transnational criminal networks, which have entrenched criminal loyalists and violent enforcers in Australia and offshore.
Their complicated web of criminality expands beyond illicit tobacco, and they use similar crime structures and methodologies to import other illicit commodities.
Despite their readiness to use violence, including against those who speak to police, the AFP and relevant parties are identifying their criminal structures, their global business model, and how they are leveraging the criminal gig economy through jobs for hire - often taken on by local youth gangs.
We know through the work of the AFP and our partners that we are frustrating these criminal networks through our operational tactics and charges.
In just one Victorian Operation, named Tiger-Gemaris, the AFP in July 2025 executed nine search warrants on three residential premises and six storage units.
About 57 pallets of illicit tobacco products were seized, including 5.8 million cigarettes and 84,000 vapes.
It is estimated the value of the illicit goods was more than $10 million. This remains an active investigation and further information will be provided at an appropriate time.
Since June 2025 alone, the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce has restrained more than $33 million in proceeds of crime linked to illicit tobacco.
Offenders often factor going to prison as part of their criminal craft - it's the cost of doing business - however they become infuriated when their illicit profits and goods are seized.
We have restrained millions of dollars in bank accounts, gold bullion, cryptocurrency, luxury vehicles and multiple residential and commercial properties.
On Saturday, I returned from the INTERPOL General Assembly in Morocco where I held more than 20 bilateral meetings with heads of agencies, including those seeking to disrupt and combat illicit tobacco and other commodities.
I held invaluable meetings with the Maldives Police Service about their similar challenges, including with one brand of tobacco that is prolific on the black market in Australia.
My bilateral meetings at INTERPOL also centred on countering far right groups, extremist groups and others promoting hate.
The German Federal Criminal Police Office and the AFP will start sharing intelligence about dangerous groups undermining social cohesion and successful disruptive tactics that help our communities become resistant to dangerous propaganda.
It was also apparent in my bilateral meetings that many countries share significant concerns about youth, who are becoming victims and perpetrators through online radicalisation, sextortion and corrupted masculinity.
Cruel conditioning on social media and gaming platforms is having a perverse impact on our youth, particularly young men who are viewing violent extremist material that is becoming even more extreme.
It is not uncommon to identify misogynistic attributes in offenders who have been radicalised.
Desensitisation to violence or dangerous hyper nationalism at the expense of social cohesion is a significant threat to our youth and our country.
The AFP is charging young people who would not normally come into contact with police. The genesis of the start of their criminality is not usually who they connect with, or relate to in the real world, but who they are drawn to and manipulated by in the online world.
It has been an offence only since January 2024 to use the internet or mobile network to access, share, advertise, promote or solicit violent extremist material and possess or control violent extremist material.
Yet since 2024, the AFP has already charged 13 youths aged between 14 and 17 for offences related to possessing or sharing violent extremist material. This is life-changing for these young people, and it is entirely preventable.
I again urge parents to know what content their kids are viewing online.
Hateful ideology in Australia continues to tip into criminal threats and activities.
When I first became AFP Commissioner, I revealed the creation of our new National Security Investigations teams.
Since their establishment, our National Security Investigations teams have been working hard to disrupt individuals and groups who are damaging Australia's social cohesion and targeting parliamentarians.
The teams have 41 active investigations, and to date eight people have been charged and are before the courts.
In the past week, our National Security Investigations teams have executed further search warrants, and we will provide updates on these investigations at an appropriate time.
I could not be any clearer - under my Commissionership, criminal acts that erode the country's social fabric by advocating hatred, fear, and humiliation will be investigated by very experienced investigators who have world-leading tools and capabilities.
Finally, I have some proud news for the AFP to share.
In an Australian first, the AFP will next year host the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit in New York, a biennial summit of heads of national police, ministers and senior government officials from 193 UN member states.
This opportunity will allow me to address the United Nations to amplify the voice of Pacific Islands police, just as I was able to do at the Interpol General Assembly last week.
This is about Pacific policing regionalism and being able to empower Pacific police to be seen and heard on the global stage.
The regional leadership and ambition of Pacific police chiefs is clear, as is their desire for regional solutions to our shared security challenges
Over the coming weeks and months, I will be travelling regularly to the Pacific to meet my policing counterparts.
The protection and security of the Pacific is a shared priority for the AFP and Australia.
Thank you.
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