BORDER SECURITY – AUSTRALIA’S FRONT LINE

7:30pm (PG)

A Thai passenger could hold the key to a major crime syndicate tonight on BORDER SECURITY - AUSTRALIA’S FRONT LINE. There’s also a dramatic pursuit to stop a multimillion dollar haul. And are an elderly couple committing an innocent mistake or deliberately breaking the law?

Several flights have landed at Sydney’s International Airport and Immigration Officers are inundated with thousands of passengers. They pull a Thai passenger aside for an interview because of his travel movements and some suspicious documents he’s carrying. He’s holding a lot of credit cards that suggest he’s been financially active in Australia. He’s also in possession of some work documents. He maintains he’s only here for a holiday but the evidence implies the man might be hiding a much bigger secret.

With more than 4000 shipping containers entering Australia on any given day, Customs has their job cut out for them when trying to stop contraband crossing our borders. The sheer number of containers means that Customs officers are kept busy checking for illegal and undeclared goods. At the Container Examination Facility in Sydney, Customs is about to uncover a serious misrepresentation of goods. A bill of loading for a container states toiletries are inside but the x-ray reveals some anomalies. After opening it up, the odour immediately confirms their suspicions. What’s hiding inside? And has their discovery thwarted a multi-million dollar smuggling attempt?

In Quarantine at Sydney Airport, an elderly Chinese couple have arrived bringing with them a large quantity of medication. Customs Officers have to determine whether the couple might be carrying any illegal substances. Is it a naïve mistake or a conscious breach of the law?

Narrated by GRANT BOWLER, BORDER SECURITY- AUSTRALIA’S FRONTLINE takes viewers behind the scenes of our Immigration, Customs and Quarantine departments.