The Dark Side

‘Each year at least $10 billion is laundered in and through Australia. Much of this money is derived from illicit drugs.’ Hooked on the limitless profits of the drug trade, organised crime has grown so powerful that it now poses a major threat to Australia’s national security. Clive Small and Tom Gilling show how Australian crime gangs, in partnership with violent international syndicates, have exploited lax law enforcement and corruption on the nation’s waterfront to import narcotics on a vast scale from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. The authors reveal for the first time the corrupt history of Mark Standen, the senior investigator at the New South Wales Crime Commission whose conviction on drug importation charges sparked Australia’s biggest law-enforcement crisis since the Wood royal commission. In the process, they expose the cover-ups, strategic blunders and missed opportunities that continue to make Australia a soft target for international drug traffickers. The Dark Side is a fierce and compelling exposé of organised crime in Australia and Australia’s multi-billion-dollar drug trade.