MELBOURNE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Victoria has become the illicit drug capital of Australia, police data released on Friday has revealed.
Police seized more ice, speed, MDMA and stimulants in Victoria than in any other Australian state in the financial year ending June 2017 according to the data.
Almost 4,900 km of amphetamines were recovered by police, a 396 percent increase on the previous financial year.
The Australian Criminal intelligence Commission (ACIC) said the huge increase in amphetamine seizures was due to several large busts, though the data does not include 903 kg of methamphetamine seized in Melbourne in April, the largest meth bust in Australian history.
Overall, more than 21 tonnes of illegal drugs were found by police in the 12 months, the fourth-highest amount ever.
Victoria was also home to 144 of the 575 drug labs police shut down.
Michael Keenan, Australia's justice minister, said that ice posed "by far the greatest threat to the community" with 60 percent of Australia's top criminals profiting from the drug.
"With drug peddlers getting more sophisticated than ever before, we must be smarter and more targeted in our collective efforts to detect, disrupt and undermine this depraved industry," Keenan told Australian media on Friday.
Victoria was the only Australian state where more people were arrested for amphetamines than cannabis, with 10,985 amphetamine arrests compared to 9,717 for cannabis.
Overall drug-related arrests were up 15.4 percent with more than half relating to cannabis while the 115,421 drug seizures nationwide was a new record, marking an 84.7 percent increase over the last decade.
