The Sting: Australia's Plot to Crack a Global Drug Empire

It was a David and Goliath style battle: Australian investigators up against a global organised crime empire. What seemed like an impossible task resulted in one of the most ambitious investigations in the world, infiltrating international money laundering streams and exposing the global crime bosses in control of the world’s drug trade.

The Sting is the never-before-told story of the ongoing efforts of Australia’s most secretive and powerful law enforcement agency to topple the new face of organised crime. This is a tech-savvy, billion-dollar empire with tentacles reaching across the world, from outlaw motorcycle gangs to powerful Asian crime syndicates to law and government agencies.

This is not a conventional story of good versus evil. It chronicles criminal, law enforcement and political tactics through the eyes of its major players—the criminal investigators, the international crime bosses, the senator, the drug cook and the investigative journalist—and exposes what many in power don’t want the public to know.

Nick McKenzie is one of Australia’s leading investigative journalists. He works for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald and occasionally reports for ABC TV’s Four Corners program. He has won Australia’s highest journalism award, the Walkley, three times for his work exposing corruption and organised crime. His work has triggered several major inquiries, including Australia’s biggest bribery investigation. In his free time he surfs and reads.