Drug investigators in the Philippines are introducing new measures intended to prevent the importation of illicit substances through the country’s hundreds of private airstrips and ports, according to the country’s state-run news agency.

In an interview published on Friday, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) boss Aaron Aquino said traffickers are routinely using unmanned runways and private ports as landing spots for private airplanes, seaplanes and yachts carrying large quantities of illegal drugs.

Aquino raised his concerns after the issue was discussed during the Philippines’ Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) Enforcement Cluster Meeting, which was held earlier this month in Quezon City.

The PDEA is now lobbying for the establishment of a new inter-agency taskforce designed to stop drug traffickers from using the country’s 1,200 private ports as entry points.

“Before, drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are shipping tons of illegal drugs, either finished products or raw materials, through shipside smuggling in the high seas, airports and seaports. But now, they have included in their itineraries unmanned landing strips and private ports as drug transit routes,” Aquino said.

“Airstrips have no airport facilities that is why proper documentation of the name of the arriving passenger/s, cargo details, among others, remains a problem. There is also a possibility that foreign chemists flew in and out of the country via the backdoor using the runways and open seas.”

Separately, the Philippine Information Agency has announced that the PDEA has opened a dedicated rehabilitation centre for glue sniffers in Quezon City.

Opening the Sagip Batang Solvent Reformation Centre, Aquino said the facility would help take children and young people off the street and keep them away from drug use.

Workers at the new site will offer reformative care and reintegrated interventions such as education, counselling, values formation and skills development.

The centre is currently treating 28 solvent abusers, the youngest of whom is aged just 11, the PDEA said.

Impoverished children living in slums across the Philippines regularly sniff glue as a means by which to alleviate their hunger and escape from the squalid nature of their environment.

The industrial solvents they inhale can cause sudden death, brain damage, memory loss and harm to the central nervous system, kidneys and liver.

Children addicted to glue and other solvents in the Philippines often fund their habits through petty crime such as street robberies, extortion and drug dealing.

Earlier this month, the PDEA launched a new programme that will see solvent abusers housed in government institutions until they address their addictions.

Consumption of heroin and MDMA has risen to the highest levels ever recorded in Australia by an annual study that measures the presence of illicit substances in the country’s wastewater.

The seventh National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Programme report, released by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), also showed that Australians now use twice as much methamphetamine as any other illicit drug.

According to the study, Australia ranks second for methamphetamine and MDMA use among 25 countries that produce comparable stimulant data, but has relatively low comparative cocaine consumption.

The study revealed that while the consumption of nicotine and alcohol fell across the country in the 12 months to December last year, use of methamphetamine continued to outstrip the consumption of all other illicit drug types and pharmaceuticals.

The report estimates that Australia’s annual consumption of methamphetamine has reached nearly 10 tonnes, which compares to just over four tonnes of cocaine, and 750kgs of heroin.

Australian drug users are thought to favour synthetic narcotics on account of the cost and expense of shipping substances such as heroin and cocaine into the country from the regions in which they are grown.

The study also found that while use of synthetic opioid fentanyl plateaued in the final six months of 2018, oxycodone consumption rose over the same period.

On a regional basis, South and Western Australia were found to have the highest average use of methamphetamine, while Victoria had the highest rate of heroin consumption, and New South Wales the top level of cocaine use.

Unveiling the latest edition of the report, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Chief Executive Officer Michael Phelan said: “The Australian community continues to consume illicit drugs at concerning levels and the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program is providing an important, unified and consistent guiding tool for developing holistic drug responses.

“We are only now starting to realise the full benefits of the ongoing programme.”

The study found that average heroin consumption decreased in both capital city and regional areas, while average cannabis consumption increased in both city and regional sites.

The ACIC noted that the report covered 54% of the Australian population, which equates to about 12.6 million people, and that 50 wastewater treatment plants across Australia participated in the December 2018 collection, monitoring the consumption of 13 substances.

Earlier this month, the Australian Border Force (ABF) announced that it had seized 1.6 tonnes of methamphetamine, which was said to have been the largest shipment of the drug ever discovered in the country.

Law enforcement authorities in Australia have broken up an organised crime gang that trafficked large quantities of drugs into the country from the US by hiding them in comic books.

Raids carried out on properties linked to group that took place at the end of a six-month investigation conducted by officers from the Queensland Police Service (QPS) resulted in the seizure of 3kgs of methamphetamine with an estimated value of more than A$1 million ($695,000), cannabis, GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate), drug paraphernalia and an amount of cash.

QPS detectives arrested 10 suspected members of the gang and charged them with 40 offences, including the trafficking and supply of dangerous drugs, money laundering, importing a border-restricted drug, possession of dangerous drugs, stealing, possession of drug utensils and possession of the proceeds of crime.

The ringleader of the group, who police described as a 49-year-old Gold Coast man of no fixed abode, is said to have travelled regularly to the US, where he is thought to have coordinated the trafficking of narcotics via courier services to Queensland from southern California, which investigators noted is close to the US border with Mexico.

Images posted online by police show how those involved in the trafficking conspiracy concealed bags of methamphetamine inside comic books before sending them to Queensland, where gang members on the Australian side of the operation would then distribute the drugs across the Gold Coast.

Commenting on the success of the operation, Detective Inspector Brendan Smith said the negative impact of methamphetamine on the local community was impossible to overstate.

“This operation has dismantled a significant criminal network and removed over 30,000 hits off Queensland streets,” he said in a statement.

“This operation clearly demonstrates our ability to bring resources to bear on those involved in the supply of this insidious drug.

“Our efforts will continue, and offenders need to understand every opportunity to bring then before the court will be taken regardless of the location or time of day.”

Smith said intelligence gathered from sources linked to the gang resulted in its members’ detention, adding that the alleged leader of the operation had travelled to the US on more than a dozen occasion since October last year.

The suspects arrested and charged in connection with the conspiracy will appear before the courts over the course of the coming month while investigations into their activities continue, the QPS said.