A woman was allegedly flown around Australia to deposit cash in ATMs for a money-laundering syndicate until she was arrested at Sydney airport last year.
The Australia Federal Police (AFP) alleges the "money mule", who was on a student visa, had millions of dollars in illegal funds pass through her accounts.
She now faces up to 25 years in prison after allegedly picking up and feeding wads of cash into ATMs around the country on several occasions.
The amount of money laundered in Australia, through avenues such as the nation's financial systems and the property market, has hit billions of dollars per year, according to the AFP.
Investigations have identified that one Sydney criminal gang was laundering $1 million an hour on some days in 2022.
The new multi-agency, Taskforce Avarus, will target money-laundering networks in Australia, which are believed to be operating at an industrial scale and fuelled mostly by the drug trade.
"Money is the lifeblood of organised crime," AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dametto said.
"The AFP already had significant success in targeting encrypted communications — a key enabler of organised crime.
"It will now focus on eliminating its other key enabler."
The AFP's Operation Ironside, which used Trojan-horse-encrypted messaging app AN0M to crack organised crime groups, identified two Western Sydney units linked to a Vietnamese money-laundering syndicate.
The alleged "cash houses" had reinforced doors and trip wires that activated CCTV cameras, and officers allegedly found $2.6 million inside.
Further investigations into the syndicate ended with $23 million worth of properties restrained by authorities and one woman charged with proceeds of crime offences.
In another operation, a woman who routinely wore wigs and changed her clothes to hide her identity when depositing cash in ATMs for another syndicate was undone by her signature red sneakers.
It is alleged when the Vietnamese-based coordinator of the syndicate was arrested in Sydney, he twice tried to bribe an AFP officer with $20,000 to let him go.
Taskforce Avarus will combine the resources of the AFP, AUSTRAC, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian Border Force to unravel how criminals hide their money, Assistant Commissioner Dametto said.
He said these syndicates had created a "shadow economy" to enable crime.
"They exist only to launder money on behalf of organised crime and rely on the expertise of professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, to help them evade law enforcement," he said.
"This dirty money that is laundered through our economy is not only bankrolling lavish lifestyles but also funding future crime, such as more illicit drug importations and weapons trafficking.
"Put simply, without the ability to launder their money, transnational serious organised crime ceases to function."
Criminals are also believed to use cryptocurrency, real estate purchases and goods like bay formula and cosmetics to clean their ill-gotten cash.
AUSTRAC deputy chief executive of intelligence,John Moss, said money laundering was not a victimless crime but one that had "real-world consequences ... right here in Australia".
"Criminals engage in the activities which are the most lucrative, like trafficking in drugs or humans, Dr Moss said.
"So when criminals are cleaning the money made from these crimes, people shouldn't lose sight of the child that was exploited, or the violence and deaths caused by the trafficking of illicit drugs."
