20 years jail for killing drug dealer

A [man] has been sentenced to at least 20 years in jail for bashing [a] drug dealer to death and hanging the man to make it look like suicide.

The body of Gary Kirk Beaumont, 33, was found in the boot of his car in the car park of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide in June last year.

He had been repeatedly bashed and kicked, stabbed and then hanged by Steven James Newton, 49.

The victim had driven to Newton's house at Birkenhead earlier in the evening to sell him methamphetamines.

Justice Michael David said it was unclear how the fight started.

Newton and his de facto partner, Rebecca Lee Bone, 39, drove around with the body for hours, before dumping the car at the hospital.

Mr Beaumont's girlfriend wept in the courtroom as Newton was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole term of 20 years.

Bone was given a two-year jail sentence, with a 15-month non-parole term.

Woman jailed over heroin deal

An Adelaide woman has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for her part in a million-dollar heroin deal.

District Court judge Michael Boylan said Marianna Nicodin, 50, had set an appalling example for her two children by getting involved in the deal.

The Torrens Park woman and a man sold 170 grams of pure heroin to two undercover police officers.

Nicodin said nothing today as she was led away from the hearing.

She can apply for parole in seven years.

Man jailed for trafficking, blackmail

A man has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for drug trafficking and blackmail.

Forty-year-old Milad Mokbel pleaded guilty to six charges, including concealing the proceeds of crime and trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamine.

The Supreme Court also ordered the confiscation of his proceeds of crime, including a Harley Davidson motorcycle and two watches worth more than $20,000 each.

Milad Mokbel will serve a minimum of eight years before he is eligible for release.

Brisbane duo jailed over $27m cocaine bust

A Brisbane judge has jailed two men for importing cocaine with an estimated street value of $27 million into Australia.

The Supreme Court heard 49-year-old Billy Sergio Palemene and 33-year-old Ruben Hurtado were arrested last year after authorities in Brisbane intercepted a package containing more than 16 kilograms of pure cocaine.

Prosecutor Michael Nicholson told the court it was a second attempt for the two men, after a smaller package containing more than 478 grams of pure cocaine was intercepted by US authorities.

The court heard Hurtado was under pressure to clear a large drug debt and had enlisted Palemene's help because of his job with an international courier company.

Justice James Douglas jailed Hurtado for 15 years with a non-parole period of nine years and Palemene for 12 years with a non-parole period of seven.

Aussie painter jailed on Bali drug charges

An Australian painter convicted of drug use in Bali has been jailed for eight months.

Sydney man Shane Christos Demos, 37, was on Thursday found "officially and convincingly guilty" of using hashish and heroin.

Following a trial in the Denpasar District Court, chief judge Nyoman Sutama imposed a sentence of eight months.

Demos had acted against the Indonesian government's efforts to fight drug abuse in the country, Mr Sutama said.

The jail term was slightly more lenient than the one-year sentence sought by prosecutors.

Demos was arrested in September outside a shop in Bali's Double Six nightclub area.

A police search found 5.9 grams of dried hashish and 0.3g of heroin hidden in a cigarette box in his pants.

The Australian told authorities he had paid one million rupiah ($A140) for the hashish, but had been given the heroin for free at a nearby restaurant.

Mr Sutama noted that Demos did not have a criminal record and had expressed remorse.

"The defendant admitted to and regretted his actions. The defendant promised never to repeat his actions again," the chief judge said.

He said Demos had admitted using drugs to self-medicate following a car accident.

Defence lawyer Daniar Tri Sasongko said the Australian "accepted the verdict" and asked that his client be given medical treatment while in prison.

ABC reporter Lloyd 10 months jail

Jailed...Peter Lloyd was arrested in July on drugs charges.

ABC reporter Peter Lloyd has been sentenced to 10 months' jail by a Singapore court.

Lloyd has pleaded guilty to three drugs charges.

He has been sentenced to four months each on charges of possessing and consuming the drug methamphetamine.

He will also serve two months in prison for having utensils for consuming the drug.

The 42-year-old former foreign correspondent was arrested in a Singapore hospital in July.

He was handcuffed and taken to Changi prison after saying goodbye to his distressed former wife, Kirsty McIvor.

Earlier his lawyer had told the court that Lloyd wanted to be reunited with his nine-year-old son, who is seriously ill.

Lloyd, 42, appeared before Singapore's subordinate court, where a judge, Hamidah Ibrahim, handed down the sentence.

It had been thought that by the bribe he [allegedly paid to Singaporian authorities] the dropping of an earlier trafficking charge against Lloyd augured well for a lesser sentence.

The trafficking charge carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and 15 strokes of a rattan cane, an excruciatingly painful punishment.

Quote: If you've got money you can buy your way out of anything. Lloyed is very lucky really not to be doing a quick 20 years in a rat-infested dungeon with 20 people. But I guess even 10 months would be a problem for him as he's never been to prison. Lets hope he can honestly report his experience to help others instead of the propaganda reported by the ABC.

Third man jailed over $1m drug haul

The fifth man to face court over an interstate drug ring worth more than $1 million has been sentenced to three years in prison.

He is the third person of the group to be given a term of imprisonment.

In January, NT police arrested five people involved in trying to smuggle large quantities of drugs from Adelaide to Darwin.

In court today, Thomas John Morris was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended after six months.

He was caught south of Tennant Creek with commercial quantities of cannabis and speed worth more than $300,000 in the trailer of his motorcycle.

The court heard Morris agreed to transport the drugs because he was struggling financially after chronic back pain left him unable to work.

Aust govt inconsistent on death penalty

Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, have all been executed.

The lawyer for one of the Bali Nine members facing death row says attempts to have his client's life spared will not be taken seriously unless the Federal Government consistently opposes the death penalty.

Solicitor John North represents drug smuggler Scott Rush and he wants the Federal Government to step up diplomatic pressure on Indonesia over capital punishment following the Bali bombers' execution.

Mr North says while he understands why the Government did not campaign for the lives of the bombers, the Government cannot pick and choose.

"Probably can't expect them to do it because they were such monstrous crimes but the thing is they should make it quite clear to the many Indonesians that they value life, all human life," he said.

"They shouldn't try and cherry pick those that should be executed and those that should not."

Quote: All those innocent people killed in East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan (Colateral Damage) never committed any crime and they were killed. Murdered in fact in cold blood by Indonesia and Australia and its complicity in those illegal and degrading wars and crimes against humanity. The fact is our government murder people in cold blood anytime they think that they can get away with it and they do so with impunity.

Related:

Indonesia tells bombers families get ready
The families of the Indonesian Islamists on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings have been told to "get ready" for the executions, a prosecutor says.

Protest Bali bombers' executions - priest
High profile Catholic priest Frank Brennan has called on the Australian Government to speak out against the execution of the three Bali bombers as it draws nearer.

Fool me twice 1-20 -Official release (BALI BOMBINGS/ETimor) Exposing the Australian government's lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali bombings (including '93 WTC attack) and subsequent anti-terror legislation forced through parliament.

The Truth About Bali Bombings
Part One + Two: Que Bono. Who Benefited? The Bali Bombings were a direct US-Israeli response to the growing Peace marches and Anti War Movement in Australia that was ballooning at an alarming rate after 9-11 and after Bush announced he was waging illegal invasions. It also very quickly secured Indonesia's and Australia's subservience to the US and cemented involvement in the US led War on Terror, and subsequent illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rudd firm on capital punishment stance
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the fact that he backs the death penalty for the Bali bombers in Indonesia does not signal any change in his opposition to capital punishment in Australia.

Push for clear line on death penalty
PRESSURE is mounting on the Rudd Government from the Labor back bench to adopt a tougher stand against the death penalty.

I had no choice, says courier facing death
AN AUSTRALIAN sentenced to death in Vietnam this week for heroin trafficking told officials she was forced into the crime to pay off her husband's gambling debts.

'Bali nine' trio's death sentences overturned
Three 'Bali nine' members still face the death penalty, including the group's ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, as well as Rush, the only drug mule still sentenced to death.

Retrial ordered after judge caught napping

The High Court has ruled that there was a miscarriage of justice during the trial of two men accused of drug trafficking, because the presiding New South Wales district court judge was asleep during parts of the 17-day hearing.

Rafael Cesan and Ruben Mas Rivadavia from Sydney were convicted in June 2004 of conspiracy to import more than 640 grams of ecstasy into Australia.

In 2007 they appealed against their convictions and sentences. They argued that Judge Ian Dodd's snoring was disruptive during cross-examination and the jury were visibly distracted.

Medical evidence showed the judge was suffering from severe sleep apnoea during the trial.

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeals, but in September the High Court ordered a retrial.

Today it published its reasons, ruling the judge had failed in his duty to supervise the trial and the jury had been prevented from paying full attention to the evidence because of his behaviour.

Death penalty ban 'would help save Bali 9'

A Sydney Federal Labor backbencher says a permanent Commonwealth ban on the death penalty will help the campaign to get Australians off death row in Bali.

The member for Werriwa, Chris Hayes, says current legislation means the death penalty could be reintroduced by the states.

He has moved a notice of motion in Federal Parliament to stop that happening.

Mr Hayes says it was the plight of the convicted drug smuggler, Scott Rush, that motivated him to action.

"What parent of an 18-year-old hasn't got concerns about the people their child mixes with or sometimes associates with?," he said.

Scott Rush and two other Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, face the death by firing squad in Indonesia.

The three Australians are members of the so-called Bali nine, who were caught trying to smuggle more than 8.2 kilograms of heroin from the resort island of Bali to Australia in 2005.

Chris Hayes says his bill also sends a clear message that Australia opposes the death penalty, increasing the diplomatic pressure on Indonesia.

It will be debated when Parliament resumes the week after next.

Rudd firm on capital punishment stance

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the fact that he backs the death penalty for the Bali bombers in Indonesia does not signal any change in his opposition to capital punishment in Australia.

[What a contradiction in terms?]

Mr Rudd says the three men on death row in Indonesia over the bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, are cowards and mass murderers who deserve the justice that will be delivered to them.

[Wrong again: The convicted Bali bombers did not have the means to create such a bomb. There are reports that in one Balinese kampong that provided labour to the clubs in Kuta Beach, seven empty coffins were buried, because there were no identifiable remains of the missing workers. It was as if they had been vaporised. Scores of people, mainly locals, are thought to have disappeared without trace.] Australia's Terrorism Wake Up Call.

He says the Bali bombers are subject to the Indonesian system, but he has said he does not believe in the death penalty in Australia or for Australians in other nations.

"That's the view of the Liberals, that's the view of the Australian Labor Party and that'll be the case into the future as well," he said.

"Also when it comes to Australians convicted of sentences abroad, both Mr Howard when he was prime minister and myself since becoming Prime Minister, we regularly intervene with foreign countries arguing the case for clemency for Australians convicted abroad."

Quote: Clearly Kevin Rudd is lost on this one. How can he not see that all people are equal? And have been created equal - no matter where they are from? How can any person create this dilemma for themselves? For himself? For our people? Basically any other foreign country would take that as an approval to execute an Australian citizen.

Related:

Push for clear line on death penalty
PRESSURE is mounting on the Rudd Government from the Labor back bench to adopt a tougher stand against the death penalty.

I had no choice, says courier facing death
AN AUSTRALIAN sentenced to death in Vietnam this week for heroin trafficking told officials she was forced into the crime to pay off her husband's gambling debts.

'Bali nine' trio's death sentences overturned
Three 'Bali nine' members still face the death penalty, including the group's ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, as well as Rush, the only drug mule still sentenced to death.

Mental illness cuts ecstasy smuggler's term

A man facing up to 25 years in jail for one of the largest seizures of ecstasy ever recorded in Australia has received a reduced sentence because of mental illness.

Zachariah O'Brien, 36, was found to have been suffering from bipolar disorder when he and Kings Cross drug dealer Robert Drury, 58, imported $200 million worth of ecstasy tablets hidden in the walls of a baking oven from Germany.

Both men were arrested by federal police on November 13 in 2004 when they picked up the oven containing 820 kilograms of the drug from a storage centre at Wetherill Park in Sydney's south-west.

O'Brien, from the NSW north coast village of New Italy, and Drury were charged with conspiring to import a large commercial quantity of ecstasy and with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In June 2006, Drury was sentenced to 18 years' jail for his part in the importation with a minimum non-parole term of 11 years.

During this time it was alleged the pair obtained the drug from a Netherlands-based crime syndicate which has been since dismantled with convictions against three Dutch men and two other men in Belgium.

After spending almost four years in jail on remand since his arrest and conviction in a trial in August last year, O'Brien came before Judge Greg Woods in the Downing Centre District Court today for sentencing.

In sentencing O'Brien to serve 12 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years, Judge Woods took into account the mental health issue.

He also took into account the time Woods had already spent in custody and said that period should be deducted from his non-parole sentence. Woods will be eligible for release in 2012.

The seizure in 2004 was regarded at the time as the largest ever shipment to have been recovered by Australian Federal Police and customs in Australia.

The oven ecstasy haul is now ranked by federal police as the third largest seizure of the drug after 1.2 tons was seizure in Melbourne in 2005 and last year 4.4 tons of ecstasy was recovered in Melbourne last year.

Charge gangland police suspect: OPI

Former policeman Paul Dale.

VICTORIA'S police watchdog has recommended criminal charges against Paul Dale, a former policeman linked to a double underworld murder, along with several other police.

In a report tabled in State Parliament yesterday, Office of Police Integrity director Michael Strong recommends that Mr Dale — whose corruption case was thrown out of court after the murders of gangland informer Terence Hodson and his wife, Christine — face charges including perjury, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, misleading the OPI and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Dale was the main police contact with Hodson before he and his wife were killed in their Kew home on May 16, 2004.

At the time, Hodson had agreed to give evidence against Mr Dale, a former drug squad detective, over the alleged attempted theft of $1.3 million worth of ecstasy pills that resulted in another policeman, David Miechel, being jailed.

Mr Dale, who denies any involvement in the murders, has been accused of leaking a police dossier about Hodson's informer status to an underworld figure before the couple were killed.

Police this week offered a $1 million reward and possible immunity from prosecution for information on the case.

Mr Strong's report and recommendations relate to evidence Mr Dale and other officers gave at a public hearing into misconduct allegations earlier this year. The Director of Public Prosecutions will now decide whether charges should be laid.

Mr Strong outlines the integrity risks police face by forming or maintaining relationships with known or suspected criminals and recommends that an improper associations register is necessary to minimise the risk to police by continued association.

The report states that Mr Dale manipulated police friends to get updates about the Petra taskforce, set up in April 2007 to investigate the Hodson murders.

"In doing so, he asked those police to put loyalty to him above their integrity, and above loyalty to their oath of office, their police colleagues and ultimately their duty to the community."

Charges are also recommended against other officers — particularly suspended Detective Sergeant Dennis Linehan — who the watchdog believes have maintained an inappropriately close relationship with Mr Dale while knowing he was under investigation.

Perjury, attempting to pervert the course of justice, misconduct in public office and attempting to mislead the OPI are charges recommended against Mr Linehan, as well as disciplinary action. Detectives Robert Bird, Robert McCann and Mark Chrystie should also face disciplinary action for their relationship with Mr Dale, the report says.

From October 31, all police in Victoria will have to declare any associations that may be seen as "incompatible" with their jobs.

Police Association secretary designate Greg Davies said: "Our members have been dragged out, have their reputations sullied in public and they haven't even been charged with anything."

Related:

One OPI officer sacked, another suspended
Some people may form the view that it is tit for tat between the OPI and some opposition (political or other like Police Association or affiliates?) down in Victoria (See Links). Perhaps the expense claims are a way to weaken previous statements made by the OPI in relation to allegation against police?

Police-crime links linger
A SMALL number of Victorian police are maintaining improper links with organised crime figures, the state's police corruption watchdog says.

Police watchdog 'leaks like a sieve'
The Victoria Police watchdog leaks like a sieve, according to former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, who could face criminal charges following an Office of Police Integrity (OPI) inquiry.

Police criticised as OPI hearing wraps up
The head of an Office of Police Integrity (OPI) inquiry is expected to call for stronger ethical guidelines within Victoria Police when he tables his report in Parliament.

Jail term for 'baking' drugs at home

A Southern Tasmanian man who made illegal drugs from cold and flu tablets has been jailed for three and a half years.

The Hobart Criminal Court heard the drugs had a potential street value of between $15,000-$60,000.

Carey John Green used cold and flu tablets to produce methylamphetamines at his Dysart property.

In July 2006, police found $23,000 cash, chemicals, drugs and equipment when they searched the property.

The Court heard the 44-year-old had a history of being a "backyard amphetamine cook'' to support his own drug habit.

The court heard Green was grossly obese and had health problems which would make his time in jail difficult.

He will serve two-and-half-years before being eligible for parole.

Green's partner, 47-year-old Gail Ann Pearce, today received a four month suspended sentence for buying cold and flu tablets used by Green in his drug operation.

Something is rotten in the state of NSW

IN 1998 the lid was lifted on the corrupt world of NSW railways, revealing that supplying prostitutes could win you a contract, fake medical certificates signed by a dead doctor would get you a day off work, and you could claim overtime while playing golf.

Ten years later it seems little has changed in RailCorp and the stench of corruption is slowly engulfing the NSW public sector.

In past 12 months the Independent Commission Against Corruption has held inquiries into three State Government agencies - the Roads and Traffic Authority, RailCorp and the Department of Housing; the NSW Fire Brigades has joined the list this week.

The commission has begun investigating claims that the former brigade project managers Christian Sanhueza and Clive Taylor awarded $6 million in contracts between 2005 and 2007, using fake tenders to give contracts to shelf companies controlled by Mr Sanhueza.

Contracts were then sub-contracted to cheaper building firms, allegedly netting the pair almost $2.5 million.

Ken Phillips, the director of the work reform unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, said the NSW public service was "rotten to the core".

"The governments in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are pretty clean governments but NSW has never got over the rum rebellion," Mr Phillips said.

"NSW is very tribal and you have a mates culture in NSW that does not belong in any other state, which leads to an acceptance of sanctified corruption."

The fire brigade allegations are the latest to tarnish the public service and follow ICAC uncovering $22 million in fraudulent RailCorp contracts being awarded, including $3 million in kickbacks to rail staff, in one of the biggest investigations in the commission's history.

The inquiry, the seventh corruption investigation of the NSW railways since 1992, also revealed a welding manager defrauded RailCorp of $4.28 million and a contracts officer helped herself to $650,000. They were among eight people recommended for prosecution.

RailCorp was also under the corruption spotlight last year when it was discovered that an engineer, Said Marcos, awarded air-conditioning contracts to his mates, landing himself at least $710,000. But the problems are not confined to the railways.

In January this year, the commission investigated a state housing official, Douglas Norris, who took bribes to let people jump the public housing waiting list.

He also allowed homes to be used by drug dealers. It emerged that Mr Norris operated a bribes-for-accommodation scheme with alleged drug dealers and other housing tenants who acted as middlemen. Tenants paid between $500 and $700 for a bedsit or between $1500 and $1700 for a two- or three-bedroom flat.

And last year a Roads and Traffic Authority registry manager, Paul McPherson, was investigated by the commission after he provided at least 100 motorists the answers to their L-plate licence tests and gave advance warning of the route of their driving tests. False email records were also created to allow migrant New Zealanders to obtain NSW drivers' licences as part of the scam.

At least 12 public servants or contractors are facing criminal charges for their roles in various corrupt activities, and so widespread is the problem in RailCorp that the massive bureaucracy is struggling to implement the internal reforms required to fix its problems.

In a parliamentary inquiry into ICAC last month, the commissioner, Jerrold Cripps, said RailCorp had "flooded" the commission with work yet the Government was often extremely slow or had failed to implement the recommendations handed down by the commission.

"The perception is that we keep exposing it and nothing happens," Mr Cripps told the inquiry.

Woman jailed for 'horrific' child porn games

A Sydney woman has been jailed for at least three years for using child pornography, showing rape and bestiality, in online sexual role plays.

Suzanne McDonald told the District Court she became involved in the role plays with men on the internet after her marriage ended.

The 40-year-old said the pornography was sent to her and she played the role of children depicted in the images.

McDonald was charged last year after police found about 143 child porn movies and more than 2,000 images in a search of her Surry Hills home, in inner Sydney.

She conceded some were "the most horrific and worst kind" of pornography, and pleaded guilty to charges of possession and dissemination, as well as supplying prohibited drugs.

Judge Paul Conlon sentenced McDonald to four-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of three years.

He said it was important to remember child pornography was not a victimless crime.

Four years for driving death

A Hobart man has been sentenced to four years jail for dangerous driving which caused the death of his fiance in Tasmania's south earlier this year.

Vaughn Barry Stonehouse was drunk and had drugs in his system when he lost control of a ute at Kingston in February.

37 year old Bronwyn Hayers suffocated after being pinned under a ute at Kingston last February. The Hobart criminal court heard Ms Hayers was flung from the front passenger seat after her fiance Vaughn Stonehouse lost control of the ute.

42-year-old Stonehouse was later found to have a blood alcohol reading of more than 4 times the legal limit.

Justice Shan Tennent said what Stonehouse had taken from the victim's family could never be returned. The court heard Ms Hayers' children were devastated by her mothers death and had become angry and withdrawn.

Stonehouse was sentenced to four years jail with a non-parole period of three years.

Australians jailed for heroin trafficking

A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin to life in jail for trafficking heroin, and her husband, who is also of Vietnamese descent, to a 20-year jail term on the same charge.

Hoang Le Thuy, 42, and her husband Nguyen Van Huy, 39, stood trial on Friday in the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, which found both guilty of buying and selling drugs illegally, the Liberation Saigon daily cited the verdict as saying.

The couple was detained in July 2006 while preparing to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Australia after police and customs found 447 grams of heroin in their baggage, the daily said.

They bought the heroin in Vietnam for $20,000 during a visit in June 2006, it quoted prosecutors as saying in a report.

Trafficking in more than 600 grams of heroin is punishable in Vietnam by firing squad or life imprisonment.

Several Australians of Vietnamese descent have been arrested for trafficking heroin to Australia from Vietnam in recent years.

Australian gets 6yrs jail in Cambodia

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed a 50-year-old Australian man has been sentenced to six years in jail in Cambodia for drug trafficking.

Reports say Simon Peter Conway was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport in October for attempting to smuggle the drug ice out of the country.

Man jailed for sexually abusing teenage girl

Jason Anza.

A 37-year-old man from Perth will spend at least 17 months behind bars for sexually abusing a teenage girl he met through the internet.

Jason Anza pleaded guilty to 11 charges involving a 14-year-old girl in 2006.

He contacted her through a web page she had set up in which she claimed she was 19 and wanted to engage in sexual activity.

Anza and a 37-year-old friend then met her on two occasions.

Both men sexually abused her and Anza also took photographs.

Anza was sentenced to 34 months jail.

He will have to serve half before he can be released on parole.

Plea to spare drug traffickers

THE Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, has urged Vietnam to spare two Australians convicted of drug trafficking from execution by firing squad.

Mr Smith said during a visit that he was assured by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, that the Government was giving "careful and proper" consideration to appeals for clemency made by the two.

Both are Australian citizens of Vietnamese origin, sentenced to die for drug trafficking.

"I've made the point that Australia supports those bids of clemency," Mr Smith said.

The names of the two Australians were not available.

At least four Vietnamese-Australians convicted of drug trafficking have had their death sentences commuted after the Australian Government asked that they not be executed.

Vietnam has not executed any Australians for drug offences.

Several Australians of Vietnamese origin have been arrested in recent months for suspected drug trafficking, including three accused of trying to smuggle heroin onto planes.

Mr Smith said police forces from the countries could work together to help prevent crimes.

"I've made the point to the Prime Minister that Australia does not condone narcotic offences - on the contrary, we regard these as very serious," Mr Smith said.

He had finished a two-day visit to Vietnam.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws.