Who are the Black Market hoarders ?
Dutton says hoarders to be 'dealt with' by AFP, Border Force
By Anthony Galloway March 19, 2020 — 12.30pm
Police and Australian Border Force have launched a joint bid to catch individuals and groups suspected of hoarding supermarket goods and selling them on the black market in Australia and overseas amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he believed the original panic buying of toilet paper and other items in Australia was sparked by profiteers.
Peter Dutton: "I'll give them a fair warning now: it won't be a pretty experience when we deal with them." CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
"We do have some people who are profiteering, they are hoarding not for their own consumption," he told 2GB's Ray Hadley on Thursday morning.
"I think they are either selling some of the product overseas or they are selling it in a blackmarket arrangement in Australia. I'm going to come after those people and I'll give them a fair warning now: it won't be a pretty experience when we deal with them.
"If people are profiteering out of a national crisis, then they are going to be dealt with."
Asked whether the buying was "highly organised and has a criminal element", Mr Dutton said: "I believe that there is but we are working through that at the moment."
"And [we] will come down like a tonne of bricks on these individuals because I think they're the ones who have created this pattern of behaviour of hoarding and clearing out shelves," he said.
Mr Dutton said the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and state police forces were in talks about how to catch hoarders selling products on the black market.
He said Australians who had photos or information such as vehicle registration numbers of mass hoarders should contact Crime Stoppers.
"We're trying to deal with this issue and make sure that common sense is restored because some irrational behaviour at the moment, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, is unacceptable," he said.
"People who are assaulting somebody or involved in some of the footage that we have seen … are going to be dealt with by the police.
"There is certainly a bigger police effort now across a number of sites where we do have concern."
Mr Dutton said he had recovered from the symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the latest coronavirus, but was awaiting two negative tests before he was allowed out of self-isolation.
The minister, who contracted the disease last week, said it was important for Australians to realise the symptoms could be mild so they should get tested if they believed they had been in contact with someone with the virus.
"I have had nothing more than Panadol, haven't had a fever since I left hospital and ... it's a heavy flu. And I think that's going to be the experience for the vast majority of people who catch it," he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal ... 54bq6.html
