Latest News

The CDPP’s Corporate Plan 2023–27 is now available.

The 2021-22 CDPP Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Friday 28 October 20

The CDPP recently received an overall satisfaction score of 86 per cent from its biennial 2022 Partner Agency Survey.

The CDPP's 2022-26 Corporate Plan is now available.

The Attorney-General of New South Wales today announced the appointment of Ms Sarah McNaughton SC as a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW. 

The CDPP’s Library and Research Services team has won the 2022 Legal Information Service of the Year award announced at the Australian Law Librarians’ Association (ALLA) conference in Hobart on Thursday 26 August.

On 7 July 2022 the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP, announced he had declined to proceed further in the prosecution of Mr Bernard Collaery for five offences relating to the alleged unlawful communication of ASIS information contrary to the Intelligence Services

On 11 February 2022, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Ms Sarah McNaughton SC announced her decision to decline to proceed further in the criminal prosecutions of Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives for cartel offences

The CDPP 2020-21 Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday 20 October 2021. 

Drug Trafficking, Selling and Cultivation

While drug importation offences tend to dominate the serious drug practice of the CDPP, trafficking offences are also prevalent. A person traffics in a controlled drug if they:

  • sell it
  • prepare it with the intention of selling it, or believing another person intends to sell it
  • transport it with the intention of selling it, or believing another person intends to sell it
  • guard or conceal it with the intention of selling it, or assisting another person to sell any of it
  • possess it with the intention of selling it.

While drug importation offences dominate our serious drug prosecutions, we also prosecute Commonwealth trafficking offences. From time to time we also prosecute trafficking offences under the relevant State legislation, depending on the case.

Pre-trafficking

Pre-trafficking includes selling, manufacturing, or possessing a precursor and must be accompanied by specified fault elements relating to manufacture and sale.

The Criminal Code contains offences for pre-trafficking controlled precursors, however these offences have rarely been prosecuted.

Commercial cultivation

Cultivation includes:

  • planting
  • transplanting
  • nurturing, growing or tending
  • guarding or concealing
  • harvesting, picking or gathering resin from a plant.

A person cultivates a controlled plant if they engage in cultivation, exercise control or direction over the cultivation of the plant/s or provide finance for cultivation.

Cultivation will be regarded as being commercial if it is done with the intention of selling the plant or its products or believing that another person intends to do so.

The Code criminalises the commercial cultivation and sale of controlled plants; we do not not prosecute many of these offences.

Key legislation

Main offences

  • s.302.2(1) Criminal Code—trafficking commercial quantities of controlled drugs
  • s.303.6(1) Criminal Code—cultivating controlled plants
  • s.304.1 Criminal Code—selling commercial quantities of controlled plants.

Penalties

The maximum penalties for trafficking controlled drug offences are:

  • life imprisonment for trafficking commercial quantity of controlled drugs (s.302.2 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for trafficking marketable quantity of controlled drugs (s.302.3 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for trafficking controlled drugs (s.302.4 Criminal Code).

The maximum penalties for cultivation of controlled plants are:

  • life imprisonment for cultivating commercial quantity of controlled plants (s.303.4 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for cultivating marketable quantity of controlled plants (s.303.5 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for cultivating controlled plants (s.303.6 Criminal Code).

The maximum penalties for selling controlled plants are:

  • life imprisonment for selling commercial quantity of controlled plants (s.304.1 Criminal Code)
  • 25 years’ imprisonment for selling marketable quantity of controlled plants (s.304.2 Criminal Code)
  • 10 years’ imprisonment for selling controlled plants (s.304.3 Criminal Code).

Partner agencies

Relevant Legislation