Media statements

Project Brunello is not an Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) operation, and as a matter of principle the Australian Government does not comment on media speculation regarding intelligence reports.

According to Australian Criminal Intelligence (ACIC) assessments, there is a network of Australian national organised crime entities, largely based offshore, that is likely one of the most significant serious organised crime (SOC) threats impacting Australia.

ACIC Intelligence Analysts advise senior decision makers on the highest levels of transnational serious and organised crime threats facing Australia.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), as stated in its submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, fully supports and recognises the legitimacy of readily available encrypted communications applications, such as those available on the Android and Apple Application stores.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) coercive powers, similar to a Royal Commission, are used in special operations and special investigations to obtain information where traditional law enforcement methods are unlikely to be or have not been effective.

NCIS core capability was released on schedule in December 2020 and is currently in testing with our law enforcement partners.

This new initiative – the National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons will harness modern forensic techniques to allow the advanced DNA profiling and matching of unidentified human remains and missing persons nationally for the first time in Australia.

The National Criminal Intelligence System Proof of Concept was built as part of the NCIS Pilot Program for the purpose of demonstrating a number of potential outcomes of NCIS.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is currently conducting a Special Investigation known as the Targeting Criminal Wealth No.2 (TCW2) Special Investigation which aims to disrupt and deter criminal groups by collecting evidence and intelligence about financially motivated crime.

As part of the 2018–19 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the Australian Government approved the use of $59.1 million from the National Policing Information Systems and Services Special Account to fully fund the first Tranche of the National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS). The funding for NCIS at MYEFO is not captured in the MYEFO papers as its considered an extension to an existing measure which was announced in the 2018/19 Budget.