Serious and organised crime poses a significant and growing threat to Australia, it’s communities and citizens. It is pervasive, digitally-enabled and increasingly embedded within legitimate systems.
It involves multiple offenders engaging in calculated, sophisticated and often financially motivated offending that typically involves a series of criminal acts committed over time. These criminals have no regard for the harm they cause or the many innocent victims they create.
Serious and organised crime targets law-abiding citizens and our businesses to systematically undermine our safety, security and trust. The cost of serious and organised crime to the Australian economy was estimated to be $82.3 billion in 2023–24.
Criminal networks are resourceful and innovative, often seeking to compromise legitimate businesses and processes for their nefarious aims. The storage sector in Australia provides a lucrative opportunity to temporarily store illicit goods and equipment, conduct low-risk supplier drops, conceal goods, cash and assets, and to establish clandestine labs to manufacture illicit drugs. There is no shortage of available storage options for criminals, with more than 3,300 facilities across Australia and New Zealand.
The self storage sector is uniquely positioned to identify unusual behaviours, suspicious activity and report them to appropriate authorities, such as Crime Stoppers, Border Watch or Triple Zero (000).
Criminal threats to the self storage industry
Serious and organised criminals risk the safety of staff and customers through illicit, and often dangerous, activities. Storage units are used by diverse transnational criminal groups to conceal and stockpile illicit goods, including drugs, tobacco, firearms and other ammunition. Units can store commercial amounts of drugs, as well as equipment and chemical precursors used to manufacture our highest harm illicit drugs, such as methylamphetamine. These drugs can pose a high threat to customers and employees at self storage facilities if not stored correctly, or if manufacture is attempted in unsafe conditions.
Criminals take advantage of opportunities offered by technology to increase risks to you and your business. The convenience of leasing a storage unit within minutes, and controlling access to units from a mobile phone, is appealing to legitimate customers. However, it also presents opportunities for illegal manipulation. Criminals can hide their activities by taking advantage of contactless self storage facilities, including shared access functionality to enable uncontrolled access for numerous associates. Limited identity verification processes also create opportunities for criminals to use fake information to avoid detection through other mechanisms.
Staff within the industry are vulnerable to approaches by criminal networks. Criminals are known to leverage and exploit insiders with privileged access and knowledge to enable the storage and movement of illegal goods across the supply chain. This could include using insiders to access or manipulate systems and databases of sensitive information, or covertly access restricted areas. Enabling such crime is a serious criminal offence. Staff can find themselves in prison while the criminals who exploit them remain hidden from law enforcement reach.
Criminal abuse of self storage facilities can have flow-on impacts to your reputation, customer confidence and insurance premiums. The cumulative pressures caused by serious and organised criminal penetration of the sector impacts not only the commercial environment, but also the sector’s safety, reputation and viability. Losing the trust of the community, including the almost 10% of the adult population that use self storage, is detrimental to the continued success of the industry. Poor security and background checking processes may also result in legal or financial impacts, including financial penalties and increased insurance premiums.
Reducing the threat through partnership and proactive action
Business owners and shareholders deserve to be protected from serious and organised crime. Criminals are opportunistic in their approach and identify weaknesses in operating systems which they can exploit. This comes at a cost to your bottom line, but through education, partnership and change; those risks can be minimised.
Self storage industry partners are crucial in the fight against serious and organised crime. Hardening the sector against criminal exploitation requires a collaborative response that leverages collective capabilities, expands understanding and awareness, and explores long‑term solutions. As a frontline partner, the self storage sector is uniquely positioned to identify unusual behaviours, suspicious activity and indicators of criminal misuse. Information provided by industry can enhance collective understanding of the threat environment and support more proactive disruption and prevention efforts. Ongoing and proactive engagement between industry and government partners will enable early identification of threats and vulnerabilities.
Increased reporting of suspicious activity, no matter how small, is core to protecting the industry. Reporting both real or perceived threats to local law enforcement and anonymous reporting programs such as ‘Crime Stoppers’ and ‘Border Watch’ should be a priority for all self storage businesses and will assist in the detection and disruption of crime. Reporting all suspicious behaviour through the Self Storage Association of Australasia ‘StorerCheck’ can also strengthen the sector against infiltration.
Self storage facility managers can help stop organised criminals in their tracks by increasing supervision and tracking activity in ways that do not threaten staff safety. This can include:
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ensuring appropriate camera coverage and the use of video intelligence tools to monitor suspicious or unusual activity in a timely manner
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reviewing access card/functionality data on a frequent basis to ensure security systems are not being abused
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discouraging cash payments
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querying purported legitimate reasons for the storage of medicine, chemical or tobacco products
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requiring photo identification to access the facility and ensuring this matches the initial agreement particulars
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monitoring if activity of a unit does not match the type of goods reportedly stored (e.g., daily visits to a unit that was noted as containing furniture for long-term storage).
Data sharing between government and industry partners can help anticipate and identify threats. Partnership between the self storage sector and law enforcement can also harden facilities without negatively impacting the experience for legitimate consumers. This includes by sharing information on emerging crime trends and risks, and developing practical crime prevention advice for surveillance, access controls and security practices.
At the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), we are committed to working closely with our partners, and to enhancing our engagement with industry, to share our understanding of the threat environment and support the disruption of criminal threats to Australia. Together, we can protect the industry and its workers, our economy and the Australian community.
You can learn more about the ACIC via our website.
For emergency situations, call Triple Zero (000). For non-emergency situations that still require a police response, contact your local police (131 444).