Most imported cocaine arrives in the mail

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has voiced concerns over drugs at music festivals as new figures showed cocaine importation into Australia has increased.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton says a report into the illicit drug market "should be a warning to all Australians". (AAP)

The amount of cocaine seized in Australia has increased almost six times in the past 10 years, with the majority being sent into the country through the mail.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has found 4.6 tonnes of cocaine were seized at the border in 2016/17, up from 3.9 tonnes the year before, and just 664kg a decade ago.

"Australia pays some of the highest prices in the world for cocaine," commission chief executive Michael Phelan said in his report, released on Monday.

A gram of cocaine ranged in price from $200 to $600 in 2016/17, and Colombia is the main source of the drugs brought into Australia.

Data collected from wastewater shows average cocaine consumption in capital cities is almost double that of regional cities.

The report showed heroin seizures were up slightly, while cannabis was up 24 per cent, and detections of ecstasy were also up.

"This should be a warning to all Australians, people who are worried about their kids, worried about workplaces," Mr Dutton said.

"We need to send a very strong message that we have mental health issues related to prolonged use of cannabis, for example.

"We're worried about overdoses, worried about presentations for people that have gone through gateway drugs and become addicted onto other drugs."

The weekend deaths at a Sydney music festival show Australians can't trust drugs imported by criminal syndicates, Mr Dutton said.

Two young people died of suspected overdoses at a western Sydney music festival on Saturday, with three others critically injured.

"We have organised crime groups who couldn't care less what kids are injecting into their arms," Mr Dutton told reporters on Monday.

"They're pressing tablets, you just don't know the substance that you're ingesting, so if people think that these crime groups have the best interests of Australians at heart, well of course they don't."


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Source: AAP



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