UNSUSPECTING children are being used to smuggle drugs and grog into Cape York communities, police say.
Speaking after a sly-grogging crackdown netted more than 60 people, police said they searched children’s luggage at airports amid suspicions relatives had stashed cannabis and alcohol in their bags.
"People give them stuff to take home and they normally wouldn’t know what they are," acting Cairns Police District Insp Steve Kersley, who oversees Cape York stations, said.
"There are certain sections of the community at large who aren’t bothered by using children to commit these offences.
"There’s not a high frequency of it but it has occurred."
In a previous operation, police found a bag of cannabis hidden in an infant’s nappy.
"Police only noticed because they saw a packet sticking out of the child’s nappy," acting Insp Kersley said.
About 40g of the drug also was found in KFC buckets aboard a plane bound for Aurukun.
In a Cape York police operation dubbed Titan, which closed last week, police charged 63 people with 93 offences, including 26 counts of breaching the alcohol management plans.
Among the haul of liquor were: more than 470 cans or stubbies of beer; 43 litres of wine; 37 pre-mixed spirit drinks; 15 bottles of rum; seven bottles of ginger wine; a bottle of Scotch; and eight litres of port.
About 140g of cannabis also was seized. Indigenous advocate and 2007 Young Australian of the Year Tania Major said people were resorting to such desperate measures because there were no support programs for drinkers and drug users in communities.
"People have gone to these extremes to feed their addictions," Ms Major, who grew up in Kowanyama, said.
Acting Insp Kersley said sly-groggers and drug peddlers were becoming more cunning in their attempts to sneak banned substances into their communities.
One sly-grogger was caught with bottles of bourbon taped to his body when he was searched after stepping off a plane.
In another case, an air-conditioner was removed from a vehicle so bottles of booze could be hidden.
Police say the rate of sly grogging traditionally increases during the dry season, when roads are reopened to traffic.
