> in Australia [a kilo] can reach over $250,000

WTF?! Why is it so expensive in Australia?

It is wealthy people in highly affluent harbourside suburbs who are the customers for cocaine in Australia. It is not being consumed by 'junkies'. https://au.news.yahoo.com/affluent-suburb-called-drug-issue-...

It's an island with a small number of ports and airports that are easier to monitor?

Heavily cut with cheaper substances, with no alternatives

shipping?

Tarrifs?

Macroeconomics?

Boomers with seven or more rental houses:

  Despite a cost-of-living crisis, Dr Hurley said there are enough people with plenty of disposable cash to ensure the demand remains high. 

  "We generally have a good standard of living, therefore we can afford the price of cocaine."

~ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-20/why-cocaine-keeps-was...

It might relate to amateurs dealing with sharks and the ocean increasing the risk - Australian airports are pretty tight for bulk smuggling, transit shipping through the ports is looser, but the preferred method for tonnes of drugs is to transfer from a container ship to a small boat - which often goes wrong (not enough to stem the tide, enough to see a tonne of coke on the beach every year).

eg: Mexico to WA: Couriers sentenced for massive 1.2 tonne cocaine conspiracy (2025)

  Six men have been sentenced over the attempted importation of 1.2 tonnes of cocaine that was shipped from Mexico to WA shores in 2022, with their bungled and “comical” attempts to retrieve it played out in front of a Perth court.

  ...

  At the time it was the largest drug bust in Australian history and was part of an even bigger interception of around a billion dollars worth of cocaine that was destined for our shores.

~ https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/mexico...