But he did not live long. His chopped-up remains were found in the boot of a car in Mexico, where the escalating drug wars have resulted in tens of thousands of violent deaths.

The gruesome murder has fuelled fears that the extreme violence used by the cartel may spread to Australia. The group's presence in the country is increasing and Mexicans here have quietly expressed concerns about the reach of the cartel considered one of the biggest, best-resourced and most ruthless in the world.

International organisations, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, have warned that the Mexican cartels are growing in size and strength. They are moving drugs to the US, Europe and Australia. The UN drugs office says because cocaine is cheap at the source, the biggest profits are made when wholesalers deliver to the destination countries of drug consumers.

The Mexicans have stepped up their interest in Australia as a drug market because of the far higher prices paid here for drugs. The street price for a gram of cocaine in Australia is double, and sometimes triple, that in other Western nations.

Australian authorities are so concerned about the influx of cocaine that the Australian Crime Commission said in its 2009-10 report it would target cocaine imports as one of its new priorities for the coming year.

Even though there have been several large busts in the past couple of years, the lure of big profits appears to keep Mexican criminals sending the drugs to Australia.

The Australian Customs Service reported that the total weight of cocaine seized declined from 505.27 kilograms in 2008-09 to 386.78 kilograms last financial year.

Although there was a big increase in the amount of cocaine seized from airline passengers and crew, most cocaine is imported through cargo and international mail.

The Australian Federal Police say there may be a trend away from amphetamines towards cocaine. In their latest annual report federal police said Australia received cocaine from various regions, including South America, and drug seizures had quadrupled since the 1980s.

In 2009 two men were sentenced to a total 32 years in jail for separate incidents of importing almost 100 kilograms of cocaine from Mexico.

After the seizure of a 240 kilogram shipment in June last year,The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the Sinaloa cartel had infiltrated Australia, importing up to half the cocaine used on the east coast during the past two years.

Authorities suspect the group - led by Mexico's most wanted man - already dominated this country's cocaine trade before authorities intercepted the shipment.

The Sinaloa cartel is controlled by the billionaire drug lord Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman.

Its clashes with rival drug syndicates have sparked unprecedented bloodshed, murder and corruption in Mexico. More than 28,000 people have died in Mexico since 2006 in the drug wars.

The NSW Crime Commission's annual report warned about the extreme violence being used against people who have worked for the cartels in Australia.

The report said that the methods used by the drug syndicates in Mexico were so brutal they even surprised drug investigators in North America.

''It is therefore necessary to focus attention on these relatively new groups in Australia,'' the report said.

Authorities believe the cartels that have been regularly smuggling cocaine into Australia in the past few years use a similar modus operandi. They send the shipments by cargo and then send trained operatives from Mexico who are highly disciplined and use existing business fronts and infrastructure to take possession of the shipments and oversee distribution.

When the cartel's Australian arm was busted in June it was the nation's fifth-biggest cocaine seizure - and worth at least $83 million.

The cocaine was produced in South or Central America, hidden in paving stones and then shipped from Mexico to Melbourne, where the syndicate planned to send it to Sydney by truck.