ABC Four Corners: Cocaine Nation Monday 22 May allows dealers to break their silence.

Australia’s cocaine dealers have broken their silence to justify their criminal activities, with one even claiming a judge snorted a line in front of him.

The ABC gave the drug sellers a platform to speak on next Monday night’s Four Corners and several, with their identities hidden by masks, scarves and balaclavas, jumped at the chance.

They were keen to clear up what they see as public misconceptions about what they do and to be seen as legitimate businessmen who meet a demand coming from some of the highest echelons of society. 

‘Everyone’s on it. I’ve personally seen judges take it with a glass of single malt,’ a man wearing a khaki jacket, mirrored sunglasses and rubber gloves told ABC reporter Mahmood Fazal.

Just so you don’t forget to pay your dealer, one wears a hockey mask like the one immortal serial killer Michael Myers preferred in Halloween

‘I’m not an outlaw trying to rub it in police’s face. I prefer to deal with people over a cup of coffee.’

Another man in a balaclava told Mr Fazal that the appeal of being a drug dealer is to show people you overcame poverty.

‘It’s an ego thing: when you come from nothing it’s about making something [of yourself].’ 

But their legitimacy is belied by the fact most don’t want to show their faces; the range of face-coverings is impressive.

We see men in sunglasses, ski masks, balaclavas and what appears to be a Mexican wrestling mask. And just so you don’t forget to pay your dealer, one wears a hockey mask like the one immortal serial killer Michael Myers preferred in Halloween. 

The program boasts that it reveals ‘the highs and lows’ of people involved in moving illicit drugs into and around Australia.

They include ‘traffickers, importers, street dealers and high-ranking cartel operatives who break their code of silence’.

That code includes any public recognition that the cocaine trade exists, let alone is  so organised that prices are fixed.

But one of Sydney’s dealers, an imposing man wearing a black hoodie, a thick gold chain and disguised by a hockey mask, claimed Australia does have its own ‘cartel’.

Australia’s cocaine dealers have broken their silence to justify their criminal activities, with one even claiming a judge snorted a line in front of him

A drug cartel is a criminal organisation made up of independent drug lords who collude to control prices and prevent competition.

Australians are among the highest per capita users of cocaine in the world, even though they pay more than most nations, in many cases over $450 a gram.

Sydneysiders are the biggest consumers compared to all capitals.

While the latest wastewater analysis showed coke use dropped in the year to August, 2022, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said that wasn’t because people’s appetites had changed. 

‘The ACIC judges that the low level of cocaine consumption is primarily due to law enforcement seizures and detections which limited supply, as there is no tangible evidence of a reduction in demand,’ the ACIC said in March 2023.

ACIC said communities pay for drug use through ‘through violence, road trauma, property crime, illness, injury and deaths [due to] drug use’.

It added that much of the harm caused by organised crime is due to illicit drugs.