Title.
1.3 THE ROLE OF THE AFP
Scrutiny has recently started to focus upon the role of the Australian Federal Police, for a variety of
reasons. These range from the potential motivational forces in play with respect to complicity with
the Indonesian regime (see Proposition 2), to unresolved issues surrounding events to which they
must have been party.
The following aspects have all been previously reported through a diverse range of sources:
Police Corruption
Operation Mocha was a joint investigation by Australian Federal Police and the NSW Crime
Commission into a drug syndication ring. It embraced the cocaine shipment that landed at Sydney
airport at exactly the same time as Schapelle Corby landed. In fact, they overlapped by over 3 hours
[17].
The head of Operation Mocha was former Assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark
Standen, who was later arrested for conspiring to import $160 million of pre-cursor drugs into
Australia [16] [10]. As operation head the sphere of his influence was clearly significant, although
details of exact actions remain vague.
Standen, an ex-AFP officer, had worked in the same office as AFP Commissioner Michael Keelty
[18] in Sydney. Whilst Keelty denied reports in ‘The Australian’ newspaper that he and Standen
were close [19] [20], he conceded that they ‘might’ have been involved in some of the same
operations [18]. Nonetheless, this clearly illustrates the seniority of Mr Standen.
Regarding the AFP, Ray Cooper, former AFP Internal Investigator, suggested that they resisted
investigation into police linkage to drug operations due to fear of reputational damage [28]: “I think
the leadership of the Federal Police were not capable or strong enough to conduct a thorough and
honest and open investigation. They were afraid of their reputation. They wanted the World to
believe they were the only police force in the World who didn’t have corruption.”
The Whistleblower
There is also the mysterious death of a so-called ‘whistleblower’ in 2002. Gary Lee-Rogers was an
Australian Protective Service assistant inspector, who complained about corruption that
compromised security at Sydney Airport and who predicted that he would be killed because of
what he had allegedly discovered [11] [13] [14].
The Statement to Indonesia
Then there are the astonishing statements made by the AFP commissioner, M ichael Keelty. It
doesn’t take too long to establish how damaging his media comments were to Schapelle Corby and
how helpful to the Indonesian regime, including in potentially covering their tracks with respect to
their many legal and human rights abuses [23].
Scrutiny has recently started to focus upon the role of the Australian Federal Police, for a variety of
reasons. These range from the potential motivational forces in play with respect to complicity with
the Indonesian regime (see Proposition 2), to unresolved issues surrounding events to which they
must have been party.
The following aspects have all been previously reported through a diverse range of sources:
Police Corruption
Operation Mocha was a joint investigation by Australian Federal Police and the NSW Crime
Commission into a drug syndication ring. It embraced the cocaine shipment that landed at Sydney
airport at exactly the same time as Schapelle Corby landed. In fact, they overlapped by over 3 hours
[17].
The head of Operation Mocha was former Assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission Mark
Standen, who was later arrested for conspiring to import $160 million of pre-cursor drugs into
Australia [16] [10]. As operation head the sphere of his influence was clearly significant, although
details of exact actions remain vague.
Standen, an ex-AFP officer, had worked in the same office as AFP Commissioner Michael Keelty
[18] in Sydney. Whilst Keelty denied reports in ‘The Australian’ newspaper that he and Standen
were close [19] [20], he conceded that they ‘might’ have been involved in some of the same
operations [18]. Nonetheless, this clearly illustrates the seniority of Mr Standen.
Regarding the AFP, Ray Cooper, former AFP Internal Investigator, suggested that they resisted
investigation into police linkage to drug operations due to fear of reputational damage [28]: “I think
the leadership of the Federal Police were not capable or strong enough to conduct a thorough and
honest and open investigation. They were afraid of their reputation. They wanted the World to
believe they were the only police force in the World who didn’t have corruption.”
The Whistleblower
There is also the mysterious death of a so-called ‘whistleblower’ in 2002. Gary Lee-Rogers was an
Australian Protective Service assistant inspector, who complained about corruption that
compromised security at Sydney Airport and who predicted that he would be killed because of
what he had allegedly discovered [11] [13] [14].
The Statement to Indonesia
Then there are the astonishing statements made by the AFP commissioner, M ichael Keelty. It
doesn’t take too long to establish how damaging his media comments were to Schapelle Corby and
how helpful to the Indonesian regime, including in potentially covering their tracks with respect to
their many legal and human rights abuses [23].