Two men have been charged in Taiwan with allegedly planning to use 3D printers to smuggle 30kg of methamphetamine into Western Australia.
Using what appeared to be a Flashforge Creator 3 FDM 3D printer to move the drugs, the perpetrators managed to cram over $45 million (in Australian street value) worth of drugs.
The Flashforge Creator is not exactly small, weighing 52kg and measuring 627 x 485 x 615mm, it has plenty of internal space and is arguably perfect for such a “use case”.
how did it happen
Operation Sting was part of Operation Ironside, a joint operation between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Prior to the arrest of the men, aged 32 and 36, authorities had been monitoring messages sent on the An0m encrypted communications platform, which was reportedly used by the criminal group between 2018 and 2021.
An0m was a very successful operation in which the international anti-crime agency distributed customers’ Android devices to criminals who installed the An0m messaging software.
The devices had disabled normal communication channels such as SMS and reported all messages to the authorities.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something of this type. Electronic vehicles remain the first stop for criminals to smuggle everything from drugs to weapons to exotic animals across borders.
Authorities in the US state of Virginia recently discovered a double-edged knife hidden inside what appears to be a Gigabyte Aorus gaming laptop. Tom’s Hardware. (opens in a new tab)
While it’s not currently possible to 3D print methamphetamine, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen 3D printers mentioned in connection with serious crimes.
As early as 2019, a Report (opens in a new tab) Research from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies highlights the potential for organized criminals or rogue states to use the technology to illegally acquire chemical or nuclear weapons capabilities.
pass: protector (opens in a new tab)