Quoc Viet Lai accused of taking bribes to smuggle almost $4 million in drug money out of the country

The Australian Crime Commission has accused senior Vietnam Airlines pilot Quoc Viet Lai of taking bribes to smuggle almost $4 million in drug money out of the country in previous trips dating back to 2005.He is alleged to have picked up suitcases of cash in Melbourne and Sydney and carried them onto planes back to Vietnam, using his privileged status as an airline pilot to bypass customs bag checks.
The experienced pilot was charged last night with 40 counts of money laundering and will appear in a Sydney court today.The arrest gives a glimpse into one of the nation's most secretive and significant operations fighting organised crime.In its last annual report, the Crime Commission revealed that since March 2005, Operation Gordian had arrested 63 people, stopped the sale of drugs worth $1 billion and tracked $93 million in drug money leaving Australia. That figure is believed to have ballooned since then.Lai is the second international pilot from Vietnam's government-owned carrier to be arrested by the commission for allegedly carrying suitcases filled with drug money onto planes bound for Vietnamese airports.The first pilot, Van Dang Tran, was jailed for 4½ years last August for attempting to smuggle $6.5 million out of Australia.Lai, who was arrested yesterday morning after flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney, is accused of collecting the proceeds of drug sales on 17 occasions in 2005 and 2006 from Vietnamese money remitters in Footscray and the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta.Operation Gordian, which includes assistance from the Australian Federal Police, Austrac and state police forces, monitors drug money as it leaves Australia instead of retrospectively tracing proceeds of crime after a drug bust.The operation has uncovered how several sophisticated drug syndicates send their money from drug sales in Australia back to South-East Asia via electronic money transfers and physical couriers.

John Broome, former chairman of the Australian Crime Commission's predecessor, the National Crime Authority, said Australia was a highly lucrative market for South-East Asian drug barons.

"If we don't stop the laundering of funds out of Australia, we are giving them enough to buy a huge amount of extra heroin to send back here," he said.

Recent media reports have revealed that Australian law enforcement agencies are concerned about an increase in the amount of heroin reaching Australia.Mr Broome, who has been a critic of the lack of action taken by some agencies to combat money laundering, said it was too early to tell whether last year's changes to anti-money-laundering legislation were having an effect. He said an obsession with terrorism meant some agencies had "dropped the ball" on organised crime.
"If you ask what is more damaging to Australian society, major crimes like drug trafficking and money laundering or terrorism, the answer is clear: it is drug trafficking and money laundering."It is estimated that between $2 billion and $3 billion is laundered in Australia each year.The arrest of a second international airline pilot also puts the focus back on airport security. While recent changes, arising from the 2005 Wheeler report on airport security, would have reduced the alleged ease with which the pilots allegedly smuggled the drug money onto their planes, sources say vulnerabilities remain.