The ice pipeline: Inside Australia’s crystal meth supply chain

Players inside Australia’s crystal meth supply chain break their code of silence. In a suburban Melbourne kitchen, a man with his face obscured by two hoodies and sunglasses pulls out a glass pipe, crumbles in a white mixture and heats it. Smoke swirls out and he inhales sharply. “Drugs don’t really affect me anymore,” he says, exhaling. This man is no ordinary drug user. He’s a crystal meth — or “ice” — cook and dealer. A smoking ice pipe. ( ) Australia is one of the most lucrative markets in the world for methamphetamines. In the year to August 2023,…