Two US Air Force members and a number of Australian Border Force (ABF) officials have allegedly been recruited by international criminal syndicates attempting to smuggle goods into Australia.

Key points: Two US airmen allegedly recruited by criminal syndicate last year

Two US airmen allegedly recruited by criminal syndicate last year Calls for Government to expand the national police and border force watchdog

Calls for Government to expand the national police and border force watchdog Corruption watchdog unable to carry out large probes due to under-resourcing

The allegations of corruption impacting border security comes as former NSW police commissioner Ken Moroney has criticised the Federal Government's failure to back an anti-corruption board overseeing the customs agency.

Senior law enforcement officials have also called for the Government to expand the national police and border force watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), which is among the smallest anti-corruption agencies in the country.

US airman Jarvis Cobb was allegedly recruited by a criminal syndicate.

The United States airmen, Jarvis Cobb and Christopher Paul, were allegedly recruited by a Middle Eastern criminal syndicate last year.

A suspected member of the same syndicate was also granted a customs broker's licence — and access to sensitive and secure areas of the waterfront.

Between 2012 and late last year, the alleged syndicate member was employed with a company with an ABF contract to move containers to a secure facility to be searched.

"If you know such things as scheduling — which containers, where they'll be — your job is made, as an organised crime identity, that's much easier if you have someone on the inside who can tell you where to search, where to pick it up when not to pick it up," Mr Maroney said.

The alleged syndicate member with a government customs brokers' licence and the two US Air Force members were recently charged by a joint state and Federal Police taskforce.

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US airman Christopher Paul was also allegedly recruited by a criminal syndicate.

But even after he was charged, the alleged syndicate member retained his government licences for several months, and finally resigned from the waterfront in May.

Neil Fergus, a leading security expert appointed by the Howard government to review port security, said successive governments had failed to introduce laws to ban people from sensitive port positions if extensive police intelligence showed they were involved in organised crime.

Mr Fergus also warned that corruption impacting on Australia's border security posed a national security risk.

"If an organised crime group is prepared to move a large shipment of drugs in and corrupt government officials to achieve that end, are they going to stop at the prospect of importing explosives or weapons in? No they are not," Mr Fergus said.

Watchdog short on resources: former commissioner

Ken Moroney has criticised the Government's failure to back an anti-corruption board.

Underworld and law enforcement sources say at least 10 customs officers have maintained improper ties with criminal drug and tobacco importers in Sydney and Melbourne since 2013.

The infiltration of criminals into the customs services was exposed dramatically by 7.30 in December 2012 when over a dozen corrupt customs officials were linked to a drug smuggling ring at Sydney Airport.

The scandal prompted then-home affairs minister Jason Clare to set up a Customs Reform Board to oversee a "root and branch" overhaul of the service.

Ken Moroney was a board director alongside former royal commissioner and judge James Wood.

But the board's reform process ended prematurely. In September 2013, it was scrapped by new customs minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Moroney said the failure to support the board's ongoing work may have meant an increase in corruption risks facing Australia's customs officers, who became part of the ABF in 2012.

In the last two years, state and federal agencies, in addition to a major anti-corruption sweep codenamed Pharos and led by the ABF commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg, have identified suspected corrupt ABF officials.

Most of these corruption allegations have been referred to the nation's corruption watchdog — the ACLEI.

However due to its size it is unable to carry out large corruption probes without using resources of the policing agencies it oversees, and officials from many state and federal agencies describe its resourcing as a joke.

A suspected member of a crime syndicate was granted access to sensitive and secure areas of the waterfront.

"Doubtless it is very committed to doing its job but you need more than a personal commitment, an organisational commitment, you've got to have the resources physical human and financial to do your job effectively," Mr Moroney said.

Mr Fergus said it was inevitable criminals would continue to infiltrate the border if the current checks and balances were not improved.

"We need to have some surety that the maritime and airports have a regime which makes it extremely difficult for people with organised crime links to be operating in privileged positions," Mr Fergus said.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Justice Michael Keenan said Australia was consistently ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in the world "and the Coalition is committed to ensuring we do not become complacent".

"That is why the Commonwealth Government has significantly increased investment in anti-corruption bodies including ACLEI, with funding increasing from $7.7 million in 2012-13 to $11.3 million in 2016-17," the spokesperson said.