Aus - Gangs pay high price as police destroy marijuana crops

[poledriver]

Aus - Gangs pay high price as police destroy marijuana crops

NSW Police officers from strike force Hyperion remove illegal cannabis crops near Bellingen on the NSW mid north coast / Pic: Nathan Edwards Source: The Daily Telegraph

A POLICE crackdown on cannabis crops has cost "organised, sophisticated" criminal groups nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Officers from the drug squad, helicopter wing and dog squad yesterday joined with regional officers trekking down fire trails and through gullies, cutting their way through rugged thickets of lantana and blackberry and into the bright sunlight of bush-based marijuana plantations.

Growers have cleared bush canopies to allow plants access to sunlight, fenced off growing areas with chicken wire and cyclone fencing, set up homemade dams feeding into drip pipe irrigation set-ups and sprinkled fertiliser liberally around their crops.

"A lot of work has gone into this," drug squad commander Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said.

"If they put that amount of work into a proper job they'd make a lot of money."

Supt Bingham said the criminals behind the drug plantations were "highly sophisticated" - making use of advanced horticultural processes to refine their plants.

"They don't just throw some seeds and cut into bush. It's bloody hard work for them. But we're hard workers too," he said.

It is hard work for officers. Police trek and drive for hours to pull up plants in the harsh sunlight. Plants are stacked up and carried out, sometimes by 4WD, sometimes by helicopter, and taken back to the police command post at the "Green Base" - a makeshift set-up on an old Aussie Rules oval near Bellingen.

"We're not after the pot smoking hippie with a couple of plants for personal use," drug squad Supt Bingham said.

"We're after the organised criminal who is making money from these crops."

He said the quality and quantity of the plants demonstrated the growers were getting better at their trade.

"We're confiscating flowering heads that are dripping with resin," he said.

"The flowering bud, which they call the head, of some of these plants are 30cm long and 40cm round. These people know what they are doing."

While the crop eradications were costing growers big bucks, police said in many cases the criminals were long gone by the time police began the clearing operations.

POLICE MARIJUANA RAIDS:

27/11/11 - 2/12/11: Manning Great Lakes LAC (Coopernock, Bulga, Elands, Wallis Lake, Wooton, Coolongolook, Old Bar, Taree, Wang Wauk and Tuncurry) - $1.93 million (965 plants) in cannabis seized

15/01/12 - 20/01/12: Richmond LAC (Kippenduff, Rappville, Clearfield, Busby Flat, Mummulgum, Bulldog, Drake, Nimbin, Blue Knob, Kyogle and Tabulam) - $7.5 million (3,374 plants) in cannabis seized

26/02/12 - 01/03/12: Coffs / Clarence LAC (Coffs Harbour hinterland) - $6.6 million (3,321 plants) in cannabis seized

11/03/12 - 16/03/12: Mid North Coast LAC (regional sites near Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Macksville etc) - $4.3 million (2,154 plants) in cannabis seized

18/11/12 - 23/11/12: New England LAC (Diehard, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Carrai, Glen Elgin) - $6.9 million (3,450 plants) in cannabis seized

09/12/12 - 14/12/12: Coffs/Clarence LAC (Bellingen, Tyringham, Nymboida, Copmanhurst, Cangai, Coutts Crossing, Dorrigo, Brushgrove) - $4 million (2,300 plants) in cannabis seized

13/01/13 - 18/01/13: Mid North Coast LAC (Bowraville, Wauchope, Port Macquarie, Kendall) - $5.8 million (2,914 plants) in cannabis seized

17/02/13 - 22/02/13: Tweed/Byron LAC (Mullumbimby, Burringbar, Chillingham, Glengarrie, Cudgera Creek) - $3.6 million (1,816 plants) in cannabis seized

03/03/13 - 08/03/13: Richmond LAC (Boorabee, Gradys Creek, Nimbin, Rapville, Tabulam) - $4.2 million (2,099 plants) in cannabis seized
02/04/13 - 04/04/13: Coffs / Clarence LAC (Bellingen, Glenreagh, Tyringham) - $300,000 (150 plants) in cannabis seized to date.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...-marijuana-crops/story-e6freuy9-1226613592174

 

[Portillo]

If these cops keeping raiding crops, there will be no marijuana left for anyone.

 

[poledriver]

Not likely. For all they bust there will always be so much more they don't get. They can't stop it all, not even close. That's why it's such a waste of resources and money doing it like they are doing, they may as well make it legal and sell it and make the tax off it commercially.

 

[slimvictor]

"If they put that amount of work into a proper job they'd make a lot of money."

With the Drug War going as it is, it creates the conditions to reward people a hundred times more for growing weed/opium/etc. than doing a "proper job". Stop the drug war, and the price of drugs will fall, so these people will move to trafficking guns - but the far more limited market for guns will mean that their profits / intake falls dramatically. Some of them will move into "proper jobs".
See, copper? I solved your problem for you.

"We're not after the pot smoking hippie with a couple of plants for personal use," drug squad Supt Bingham said.
"We're after the organised criminal who is making money from these crops."

Because it is okay to use cannabis, but not to make money from it?
Is that what the drug war is about? Is that someone's idea of morality?
Doesn't belong in government policy, if you ask me.

 

[poledriver]

We’re no longer the state’s cannabis growing capital

THE NORTHERN Rivers has lost the mantle as the cannabis growing capital of NSW according to results from NSW Police annual cannabis eradication program.

In total the program found almost 13,000 cannabis plants estimated to be worth more than $25 million which were destroyed by police.

The cannabis capital crown for 2013 according to police seizures was the New England Local Area command.

Despite the cooler conditions on the tablelands, 3540 cannabis plants with an estimated value of $6.9 million were destroyed.

The plants were discovered at Diehard, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Carrai and Glen Elgin.

This was followed by the Mid North coast Local Area Command where 2914 plants estimated to be worth $5.8 million were found at Bowraville, Wauchope, Port Macquarie and Kendall.

In the Richmond Local Area command 2099 cannabis plants with an estimated value of $4.2 million were seized from areas including Boorabee, Gradys Creek, Nimbin, Rapville and Tabulam.

State Crime Command's Drug Squad commander, Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham, said the program, which has been running since the mid 1980s, continued to be highly effective in disrupting the production and supply of bush-grown cannabis.

"As a result of our Cannabis Eradication Program, cannabis growers are being forced into deeper and more dense bushland," he said.

"We're also finding that crops are getting smaller, as growers attempt to avoid detection by police."

Det Supt Bingham said reducing the availability of cannabis in NSW, remained the program's ultimate goal.

"Some people think cannabis is a harmless drug," he said.

"It's not."

"Every time we destroy a crop, we're reducing the amount of cannabis that makes it into homes, schools and workplaces across the state."

"Since the Cannabis Eradication program started in the mid 80s, it has been able to prevent nearly quarter of a billion dollars worth of cannabis reaching NSW streets."

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/were-no-longer-the-states-cannabis-growing-capital/1818798/

 

[Portillo]

Det Supt Bingham said reducing the availability of cannabis in NSW, remained the program's ultimate goal.

I wonder how many millions of dollars will be spent on that.

 

[RedLeader]

They hit Nimbin too? Shame on them!

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

"Since the Cannabis Eradication program started in the mid 80s, it has been able to prevent nearly quarter of a billion dollars worth of cannabis reaching NSW streets."

So tell us about who runs up to supply the newly created demand...over and over and over again. It's like an endless cycle. They bust someone, then someone new pops up.

 

[szuko000]

So they spend millions to destroy millions if they planted their own and made it legal they would save millions and make millions.

I guess we just like wasting money

 

[poledriver]

Yeah it's a huge waste.

 

[poledriver]

Police say cannabis crops worth $25 million

Drug Squad police in bushland near Bellingen

Police say cannabis with a street value of $25-million has been seized during a lengthy eradication program on the north coast.

The operation began in the New England district in November last year, and wrapped up in the Coffs Harbour area earlier this week.

Helicopters were used to spot crops between Port Macquarie and the Tweed coast.

Drug Squad Commander, Superintendent Nick Bingham, says almost 14,000 plants were discovered.

"Our aim is to disrupt the supply chain, to go and find and pull as many plants as we can and get that cannabis off the street and hopefully either drive prices up or keep prices stable and that will discourage people, we hope, (from using) cannabis," he said.

But Michael Balderstone, from Nimbin's Hemp Embassy, says targeting cannabis is counter-productive.

"The new generation now is growing up on other drugs much more dangerous, powders and pills, we don't know what's in them, because you get busted with weed," he said.

"You know a pocketful of smelly cannabis, or smoking it, is the bust.

"So really, this eradication campaign is driving people to other more dangerous drugs I reckon."

Mr Balderstone says the figures being quoted by police are inflated to justify the use of resources.

"They count $2000 for every plant they find, but they don't seem to consider that 50 per cent are males of no value, male plants," he said.

"Then they don't allow for the kangaroos, or the rotting, or the stolen or the diseased.

"And heaps of cannabis is personal use and sold on the streets, so I admire their dreaming, but I'm not sure the figures are really true."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-05/cannabis-crops/4611168

 

[Portillo]

get that cannabis off the street and hopefully either drive prices up or keep prices stable and that will discourage people, we hope, (from using) cannabis.

Good luck with that.

 

[poledriver]

Big drug haul for Mid North Coast police

Three men have been charged with drug supply, possession and cultivation after separate arrests.

Police say they found 57 kilograms of cannabis worth more than $300,000 when they searched the car of 53 year old Lake Cathie man Mark De Bono at Lorne on Tuesday.

The next day they found almost 80 kilograms of cannabis and four guns when they searched the Lake Cathie home of 42 year old Danny Allen.

The men have been refused bail to re-appear in the Port Macquarie Local Court in June.

A 67 year old man is on conditional bail after 11 kilograms of cannabis and eight plants were found at a Kempsey home.

He is due to face the Kempsey Local Court on May 13.

Police on the mid north coast also say they have seen more heroin on the streets in the Kempsey area in the past few months.

The increase in heroin use is thought to be a factor behind a recent jump in the number of home invasions and robberies in the region.

Local Area Commander Paul Fehon said people who are hungry for drugs often have few qualms about robbing other people, even the elderly.

"We've found heroin was coming back into the community," he said.

"We were particularly concerned by that.

"In fact our concerns were that great that we've formed out own Strikeforce to look at mid and upper level drug supply.

"It together with the detectives have been responsible for some quite significant arrests.

"Over a million dollars in drugs in the last 48 hours that we've seized."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-12/big-drug-haul-for-mid-north-coast-police/4625624