Queensland Consolidated Acts

PENALTIES AND SENTENCES ACT 1992 - SECT 161O

161O Meaning of criminal organisation

(1) A
"criminal organisation" is a group of 3 or more persons, whether arranged formally or informally—

(a) who engage in, or have as their purpose (or 1 of their purposes) engaging in, serious criminal activity; and

(b) who, by their association, represent an unacceptable risk to the safety, welfare or order of the community.

(2) For subsection (1) , it does not matter whether—

(a) the group of persons—

(i) has a name; or

(ii) is capable of being recognised by the public as a group; or

(iii) has an ongoing existence as a group beyond the serious criminal activity in which the group engages or has as a purpose; or

(iv) has a legal personality; or

(b) the persons comprising the group—

(i) have different roles in relation to the serious criminal activity; or

Example—

Of the persons comprising a methylamphetamine syndicate, different persons are responsible for supplying the cold and flu tablets, extracting the pseudoephedrine from the tablets, supplying other necessary ingredients, and cooking the ingredients to produce methylamphetamine.

(ii) have different interests in, or obtain different benefits from, the serious criminal activity; or

Example—

Of the 3 persons comprising a group that engages in serious criminal activity, 1 person obtains the profit from the activity and pays the other 2 persons an amount for engaging in the activity.

(iii) change from time to time.

Example—

a networked online child exploitation forum

(3) In this section—

"engage" , in serious criminal activity, includes each of the following—

(a) organise, plan, facilitate, support, or otherwise conspire to engage in, serious criminal activity;

(b) obtain a material benefit, directly or indirectly, from serious criminal activity.