Australian Ice Thread

[poledriver]

Airbnb tenants reportedly trash Sydney unit and leave crack pipe behind

A Sydney woman’s apartment has reportedly been trashed and ransacked by Airbnb guests who told her they had a sick child in hospital.

First-time Airbnb user Holly told The Sydney Morning Herald that the guests turned her Rozelle apartment into a “junkie den”, and claimed they stole items and left bloodied towels and other mess behind.

Holly said the two tenants told her they had a sick child at the Sydney Children’s Hospital and needed a place to stay, and she agreed to rent her apartment to them for ten days.

She said she returned to find her unit trashed, with rotten fruit covering the walls, a crack pipe in a vase and many items missing.

"The place was completely ransacked – and absolutely stank like chemicals. The smell we later found out from the police was either ice or heroin,” Holly said.

"There was random green liquid on a lot of walls and all over the floor.

“Two towels were left on the floor covered in blood.”

Holly said there was a large list of stolen items and estimated total damages to be more than $10,000.

Despite contacting Airbnb on a number of occasions, the accommodation hosting platform did not respond to Holly until Fairfax published her account.

The company has since offered Holly $2200 to help with clean-up costs and said they would “work with police”.

"We have a zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour and we'll work with police to make sure these guests are held accountable for their actions," an Airbnb spokesman said.


Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...d-leave-crack-pipe-behind#q5lYiOTFRCzxf24m.99

 

[poledriver]

'70% are on ice... and the other 30% can't afford to buy it': Woman causes uproar after she accuses an entire town of being on meth

acebook post claimed 70% of people in Queensland's Nambour are on ice
Crystal meth claims have sparked outrage among the 10,000 living there
Hundreds have defended the town and slammed the statistics as rubbish
Crime statistics reveal 60 drug offences occurred in last three month

A Facebook post that suggested 70 per cent of people living in a Queensland suburb took crystal meth has sparked outrage among those who live there.
The backlash started when a woman tried to convince her friend not to move to Nambour in south east Queensland because she claimed the drug use there was rife.
'Don't do that - 70% of people there live on ice, and the other 30% can't afford to buy it,' the woman from Noosa was quoted as saying.

The exchange, which was shared in a private Facebook post by a mother-of-two who defended the town, has sparked outrage with many slamming the alleged figures, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports.
'To my friends that do live in Nambour, what are we missing out on? I can certainly afford 'ice' (if it's as cheap as media reports say), but alas prefer champagne and red wine. What about you? Long live the stereotype... NOT!' the woman wrote.
Her post prompted an outpouring of support from the town of 10,000 people.

'So I don't live off ice and I'm not poor... where does that fit me in then seeing as I live in Nambour?' One woman wrote on Facebook.
'Who cares what some stuck up white shoe shuffler from Noosa says,' another wrote.
'I'd love to know where the claimed statistics come from? It's not like it was a census question. You can't possibly make a claim like this unless someone has gone door to door and found out.'
Crime statistics from Queensland Police recorded there had been at least 60 drug-related offences - not specifically ice - in Nambour in the past three months.


CONT: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eensland-town-crystal-meth.html#ixzz4JMUK2xiM

 

[poledriver]

Mother's terror as her knife-wielding, meth-fuelled ex-partner breaks into her home as she hides inside with her three children

Chilling footage shows a man armed with knives and high on ice rampaging through his ex-partners home while she is barricaded in the bedroom with her children.
Sonia Gates said she had ‘expected to die’ after her ex-husband Daniel Frewin entered her home and began destroying the property, throwing chairs and attempting to kick down the bedroom door where she was hiding.
‘I was screaming, I was petrified,’ the mother-of-three told A Current Affair.

Frewin manages to break open a security screen at the Banora Point home in New South Wales, 7News reports.
A distressing emergency call recording shows just how terrified Sonia and her three children were in the 2015 incident.
Barely able to breathe, Sonia tells the 000 operator that Frewin was destroying the house.
‘He’s coming in, he’s hitting the wall,’ she whispers.

Suddenly loud banging can be heard on the call and the children start screaming and crying as Frewen attempts to break down the door.
‘He’s got a knife,’ Sonia tells the operator.
The footage shows Frewin shirtless with a large kitchen knife in each hand, pacing through the property he has destroyed.
At other points in the footage he can be seen standing eerily still in the centre of the room and lighting up a cigarette before he is apprehended by police.

Sonia left Frewin after years of violence and controlling behaviour and took out Apprehended Violence Order’s (AVO’s), but that didn’t stop her ex-partner from breaking into her home.
Sonia believes the terrifying video from that night helped her case against Frewin, who has been jailed for three years without parole.
‘Without that, he would be out and I would be dead.’
But Sonia still lives in fear for the day he is released. She has installed more security cameras and more exits from her home.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...c-violence-attack-NSW-home.html#ixzz4JX9AS2ZV

 

[poledriver]

Apex teen jailed for three years for hitting and killing a mother while high on ice and driving a stolen BMW

A teen Apex gang member has been sentenced to less than three years in prison for an ice-fueled car crash that killed a mother-of-two.
Amanda Matheson, 47, died in a Melbourne hospital last November, three days after the 16-year-old drove on to the wrong side of Governor Road in the Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc and slammed head on into her car.
The boy pleaded guilty to nine charges, including dangerous driving causing death, failing to assist at a serious accident, and car theft, The Herald Sun reports.


Cont: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...other-ice-fueled-car-crash.html#ixzz4JcQaOyeu

 

[poledriver]

Rehab Inc. - 4 corners ABC

Rehab Inc: The high price parents pay to get their kids off ice.

"What parent is not going to say 'yes, I'll sell my house'? 'I'll give you my kidney to save my child's life.' They'll do anything." Addiction counsellor

Across Australia, there are parents risking everything to rescue their children from ice addiction.

"I've knocked on every door, I've been everywhere. I've chased my daughter for 6 months from house to house to house... I turned their water off, I turned their gas off, I pinched their power fuse. I smashed their windows, I've had enough." Father

To end this living nightmare, they'll seize on any chance to get help for their child.

"Why now? Five bullets through the front window and I've sh*t myself and that was when I straight away rang mum to say I'm coming home." Addict

But that chance of rehabilitation can come at an enormous cost.

"Most families don't have $30,000 sitting in the bank account just to put their child into a rehab centre. It's just not feasible." Mother

Publicly funded rehabilitation beds are in short supply and have waiting lists running into months. So instead, these families turn to private clinics. And they charge a fortune.

"Most of the people I see who have come through private rehabs have had their superannuation emptied. It's sort of a soft target." Financial counsellor

Parents are risking bankruptcy to get their child a place. They're encouraged to access their superannuation or to re-mortgage their homes in order to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to ensure their child gets in quickly. And the price is driven by demand, rather than the service provided.

"I think that often people would get the success that they require by simply attending these 12-step fellowships, free of charge, and get the same success rate." Addiction specialist

And the lack of regulation is shocking.

"I could start a rehab up tomorrow and hire staff who aren't suitably qualified and call it a rehab, and charge top dollar. With no questions asked." Addiction specialist

Even some private operators concede families risk being ripped off.

"There are way too many rogue operators in this field that can and will take advantage of people paying the money." Clinic operator

Rehab Inc, reported by Ben Knight and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 12th September at 8.30pm EDT. It is replayed on Tuesday 13th September at 10.00am and Wednesday 14th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/09/08/4535254.htm

 

[Jabberwocky]

NA Where people go to score

 

[poledriver]

Ice and the high price parents are paying to get their children off it

Across Australia, desperate parents are re-mortgaging homes, taking out loans, or pulling out their superannuation to rescue their children from ice addiction.

Key points:

Shortage of public rehab centres mean families are driven to private centres
Private clinics often charge tens of thousands of dollars
Experts fear private clinics have 'no minimum standards'

For the Butters family of Bacchus Marsh, the choice was stark: come up with thousands of dollars to book their daughter into private rehab, or see her slide back into a cycle of addiction, which had seen her drifting from one dealer's house to another.

Tiarni Butters, 19, told Four Corners that it was a drive-by shooting that made her decide it was time to go back home to her parents and get off ice.

"There was five bullets through the front window. That's what made me switch on straight away that this is enough — like, I could have got shot right there and then. It's ridiculous," she said.

Four Corners spent the day with the Butters, filming as the biggest crisis of their lives came to a head.

For eight months, Tiarni had been moving between ice dealers' houses in Melbourne, having left her first full-time job as a dental nurse.

"Every day it was like a party … drugs were always there. There was always someone there, up to like 10 people at the one house," she said.
It was a total shock to her family. Her father Wayne stopped work to search for her; chasing leads gleaned from Facebook to the doors of drug houses across Melbourne.

"They have got steel doors. They don't have to answer them if they don't want to. I just put my hoodie over my head, knocked on the door … they must have thought it was just a drug deal, so the door opened," he said.

But Tiarni did not want to go with him.

"I would hide under a bed in case he came in and tried to find me. I didn't want him to see me like that," she said.

Wayne was horrified by what he saw in those houses.

"I have been in houses where there's been 14-year-old kids there. The house stinks. These kids stay in there for days and weeks, mate. You can't stand the smell," he said.

Soon, the dealers got to recognise Wayne's burly frame through the peephole and would not open the door.

"So I went back downstairs in a fit of rage and grabbed an axe from the car, and I axed the door down," he said.

"I did some horrible things to get my daughter out. They worked, but it exhausted me."
What would you pay to get your child into rehab?

Now the Butters have hit a brick wall. There are simply no places at public rehab clinics. The waiting lists at public rehab clinics are weeks, or months long.

Time is running out. Wayne has seen the pull ice has on users, and is worried Tiarni is about to disappear again.

"I can just see it, mate. She is itching to get out the door," he said.

"I haven't got another three months to fight drug dealers. It's just too hard."
With no public beds available, the only option is private rehab, but it is not cheap.

The standard cost for a three-month treatment is $30,000. The treatment they offer is not that different to a public rehab, but they can take a client in in a matter of days, rather than weeks or months.

For Wayne and wife Renee that is worth paying for, but they do not have $30,000.

The anxiety brings Wayne to tears.

"The last thing I want to do is sell my house," he said.

"We built it as a family. Took me two years. There's good times here, I don't want to tip it all away."

They have called in help from a volunteer community worker, who has spent the morning ringing around the private clinics trying to negotiate a reduced rate.

She has found one that will do it for half-price — $15,000. They will take Tiarni in tomorrow, but they want $5,000 up front today.

Wayne calls a mate to borrow the money. To pay him back — and to come up with the rest of the money — they will have to sell a car.

That night, the deal is done. Renee transfers the money. The Butters family have $139 left in their account, but Tiarni is in.

For the first time in a long time, Wayne and Renee can sleep in peace.

'We're in a system with no minimum standards'

It is a scene that is being played out over and over again across Australia. Parents are re-mortgaging homes, taking out loans, or pulling out their superannuation to get their kids into private rehab clinics.

Four Corners spoke with Garry Rothman, a financial counsellor at the non-profit rehab, Odyssey House.

"Most of the people I see who have come through private rehabs have had their superannuation emptied. It's sort of a soft target," he said.
Often, it will take more than one stint in rehab to get a user off ice. Some families have paid more than $60,000 for treatment, yet their child is still using.

The spread of ice has led to a surge in demand for rehab. Last year, there were more than 32,000 requests for treatment around Australia. That is almost double what it was five years before.

New, private rehabs are now opening up to meet demand. Those that are not connected to a private hospital or health fund fall into a grey area of regulation.

Essentially, when it comes to private rehabs, there are no specific rules or regulations governing what they do.

"I could start a rehab up tomorrow and hire staff who aren't suitably qualified, call it a rehab, and charge top dollar with no questions asked," said Ruben Ruolle, who heads the Drug and Alcohol unit at Western Health, a major public hospital network in Melbourne.

"There needs to be some sort of review on the organisations that aren't aligned with health providers [or] health fund providers, to become accountable."

Professor Dan Lubman, from the Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre, agrees.

"Unfortunately we're in a system where there are no minimum standards. That's a big concern for the community," he said.

"People often feel that if they pay for treatment, that means they're going to get something that's a lot better than what's offered in the public system.

"What's worrying is that there's no guarantee it's any better than what is offered in the public system. And often, I would say, is worse than what is offered in the public system."

Families who are not happy with the treatment they receive — or who try to get their money back — have nowhere to go to get a binding resolution to a dispute other than the courts.

Last year, the National Ice Taskforce recommended that the Federal Government develop a national framework, or set of guidelines, to cover the specialist drug treatment sector.

But that has not happened yet. And if, or when, it does, it's not clear if it would cover private rehabs.

Putting love over money

After four weeks in the clinic, Tiarni is doing well. Other clients have walked out, but she is sticking at it.

She tells Four Corners that if she had not got into rehab, and was still at home, she would probably be using again.

"I don't think it would have worked at all. I think I still would have been out there and just doing the stupid stuff," she said.

And that is what parents like Wayne are prepared to go to extreme lengths to pay for, and would do so again if needed.

"No matter how much money you have got, it's hard to get love back. So, I don't know. I prefer love over money … that's my opinion," he said.

Watch Rehab Inc on Four Corners tonight at 8:30pm on ABC 1.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-...t-their-kids-off-ice/7833434?WT.tsrc=Facebook

 

[poledriver]

Hobart man who injected 16yo girl with ice avoids jail term

A Tasmanian man who injected a 16-year-old girl with the drug ice has avoided a jail term.

Glenn John Austen, 51, befriended the girl in Hobart's Franklin Square last year.

The Supreme Court heard the girl had stayed at Austen's New Town home several times.

Austen, a Jehovah's Witness, had been prescribed methadone for chronic pain issues and the court heard he had allowed the girl to take a tablet in February this year.

He had also bought ice at the girl's request, prepared it, and injected it into her arm at her request.

Austen turned himself into police a few hours later.

Justice Michael Brett accepted Austen had been naive and generous and an easy target for the girl and her companions, who were experienced drug users.

But he said the offence was aggravated by the age difference between Austen and the teenager.

'Squandered opportunity' to help girl

"You were in a position of trust in respect to this girl," Justice Brett said.

"Clearly she was vulnerable without proper adult role models or support."

Justice Brett told Austen he had "squandered this opportunity" to give the girl the type of support she clearly needed.

The court heard Austen had been abusing alcohol and, following his divorce from his wife, had turned to his church for help.

But the church had expelled him, leaving him isolated and without his former network of friends.

He had gone to Alcoholics Anonymous for counselling but other members of the group had introduced him to ice and other illicit drugs.

The court heard that after the injecting incident, Austen had turned his life around and had successfully undergone counselling for his drug and alcohol issues.

Justice Brett sentence Austen to four months' jail wholly suspended for 12 months on the condition he maintain good behaviour and be on supervised probation.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-09/man-who-injected-girl-with-ice-avoids-jail-term/7832080

 

[poledriver]

Perth Cloud 9 store owner pleads guilty to importing thousands of glass meth pipes

The owner of Perth Cloud 9 retail stores has pleaded guilty to illegally importing thousands of glass methamphetamine pipes.

Pharmacist Hoang Nam Nguyen had been due to stand trial in the Perth Magistrates Court on six charges of importing prohibited imports, however at the start of proceedings today he pleaded guilty to three of the counts.

The remaining three charges were discontinued.

The court was told Nguyen imported more than 2,000 of the "ice pipes" from India and China in 2014.

The court heard Nguyen maintained he was not familiar with the way people smoked ice and he planned to sell them as kerosene lamps and candle and tobacco holders.

He was expected to make between $120,000 and $240,000 from their sale.

Nguyen will be sentenced later this year.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-...ty-to-importing-methamphetamine-pipes/7827832

 

[poledriver]

Man arrested on yacht off WA's north coast pleads guilty to drug haul

A man who was arrested on a yacht off Western Australia's north coast has pleaded guilty to charges arising from the seizure of more than 20 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Joshua Gaskell was arrested after police intercepted the yacht in August last year near the Montebello Islands, north-east of Barrow Island.

The drugs were seized after police searched a storage unit in the Perth suburb of Osborne Park.

Today in the District Court, Gaskell pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing drugs with intent to sell or supply.

He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing two firearms and more than $600,000 in cash.

His lawyer, Sanella Naumovski, said her client entered the guilty pleas on the basis that he was a "safekeeper" of the drugs and cash.

However, prosecutor Laura Christian said given the quantity of the drugs involved, the state did not accept the proposition that Gaskell was only a "safekeeper" or "warehouser".

Gaskell will now face "a trial of the issues" before a District Court judge to determine on what basis he should be sentenced.

Gaskell appeared in court today via video link from Hakea prison and was again remanded in custody until his next appearance in December.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-08/wa-north-coast-meth-yacht-bust-guilty-plea-in-court/7826792

 

[poledriver]

'In a fit of rage I grabbed an axe': How an ordinary dad stormed a dealer's den to rescue his daughter, 19, in the grip of Australia's meth crisis... and spent their life savings to get her off the drug

The parents of a teenage girl who quit her job and moved in with her ice dealer have revealed that they paid $15,000 in a last-ditch attempt to get her off the toxic drug.
Tiarni Butters, 19, left her full-time job as a dental nurse and spent the next eight months living in filthy drug dens desperate to get her next hit of crystal meth.

In a report by ABC's Four Corners, parents Wayne and Renee revealed how their 'vivacious' and 'bubbly' little girl ended up living alongside addicts in Melbourne.
Mr Butters believes his daughter was first introduced to crystal methamphetamine - known in Australia as 'ice' - during a friend's birthday party.

After getting a taste for the drug she was instantly hooked, spending the next eight months in a 'hellish' cycle of addiction that saw her leave home for weeks at a time to live with dealers.
Many of the derelict drug houses where Tiarni would stay had up to a dozen people living there, with some as young as 14, and all of them completely dependent on drugs.

Mr Butters described the extreme lengths he would go to rescue his daughter from the destructive lifestyle hidden inside the doors of the squalid drug homes.
'They have got steel doors. They don't have to answer them if they don't want to. I just put my hoodie over my head, knocked on the door… they must have thought it was just a drug deal, so the door opened,' he said.

Eventually, the dealers wisened up and refused to open the door when they spotted Wayne's bulky frame.
'So I went back downstairs in a fit of rage and grabbed an axe from the car, and I axed the door down,' he said.

But Tiarni, poisoned by the haze of ice, would rarely want to come home, often choosing to hide underneath a bed or refuse to leave.
When Tiarni did come home it would be late at night and often as she was coming down after an ice binge, Four Corners journalist Ben Knight said.

'She would come home from time to time, it would be late at night, she'd have the hoodie on, and she'd tell her parents to turn the lights down because it was too bright,' Mr Knight told Daily Mail Australia.
'Not knowing how long she'd be there or when they'd see her again, they'd sit up with her until the early hours of the morning.'

It wasn't until she was stuck in the middle of a drive-by shooting that Tiarni decided it was time to go home to her parents and try to kick the habit.
'Why now? Five bullets through the front window and I've sh** myself and that was when I straight away rang mum to say I'm coming home,' she told Four Corners.

But the cost of private, long-term rehabilitation is excessive and vastly out of reach for most regular Australian families, costing upwards of $30,000 for a three month stint.
Five bullets through the front window and I've sh** myself and that was when I rang mum to say I'm coming home

After landing a hugely discounted price of $15,000, on the condition that Tiarni arrive the next day, the Butters were able to send their daughter to a clinic.
The family have just $139 left in their bank account, emptying their savings and borrowing from a friend to make the up-front payment of $5,000.
Tiarni has spent the past four weeks there and the family have noticed an enormous change already.

Mr Knight said they were feeling positive about the future and enjoying having glimpses of their little girl back.
'The family get to visit every Sunday ... after 30 days they can take her out for a few hours, they're really looking forward to that,' he said.

'She's beautiful, your typical vivacious, bubbly teenager, full of life - you would not have known that four weeks before she'd been in the grip of methamphetamine.'
Watch Rehab Inc on Four Corners tonight at 8:30pm on ABC 1.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pent-life-savings-save-her.html#ixzz4K0NpTRia

 

[poledriver]

Nine arrested in NSW and ACT in $100,000 ice bust

Nine people have been arrested and $100,000 worth of methylamphetamine seized in a two-day operation run by a police strike force close to the ACT border.

The bust, led by Strike Force Lupo, began with the arrest of a 33-year-old man, arrested in Queanbeyan, NSW, on Wednesday, allegedly carrying four ounces of the drug ice worth approximately $30,000.

The man was later charged with 13 offences including eight counts of supply prohibited drug, two counts of supply prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis and three counts of possess prohibited drug.

He was refused bail and is set to appear in Queanbeyan Local Court on November 8.

On the same day police executed a search warrant at a home on Wattle Street, Queanbeyan where they allegedly discovered methylamphetamine, drug packaging, cannabis leaves and seeds.

Two men at the home, aged 21 and 22, were arrested and charged with weapon possession. Both men were granted bail and will appear in court on October 10. A 32-year-old also present at the home is facing a drug possession charge.

The execution of search warrants at four Queanbeyan homes and two in Jerrabomberra on Wednesday and Thursday allegedly led to the discovery of a compound bow, phones, scales, drugs including cannabis and methylamphetamine, a replica firearm and an extendable baton.

Two women, aged 27 and 33, and four other men aged 22, 25, 36 and 49, have been arrested in connection with the searches.

Police allege more than 400g of ice worth about $100,000 and various weapons were seized during the two-day operation.

Monaro Local Area Command Crime Manager, Detective Chief Inspector Neil Grey said the operation had so far been a success and would continue.

"This operation is ongoing, there’s still people yet to be arrested, but yesterday's and today's effort is a significant dint the drug trade in the Queanbeyan and ACT areas," he said.

"We will continue to target the supply, distribution, cultivation and manufacture of prohibited drugs to keep them off the streets."

Strike Force Lupo was set up in May 2016 by authorities at the Monaro Local Area Command to investigate the supply of prohibited drugs in Queanbeyan and the ACT.

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...over-100-000-worth-of-ice#iZrSHvK62ZvfIi8H.99

 

[poledriver]

Penthouse to jailhouse... Model Simone Farrow jailed for smuggling ice into Australia

A FORMER Penthouse Pet has been sentenced to a minimum six-and-a-half years in jail for helping smuggle the drug ice into Australia concealed in bath products.
A Sydney District Court judge today found Simone Farrow, 41, played a principal role in helping to smuggle methamphetamine into the country over a seven-and-a-half-month period before her arrest in October 2009.

She left Australia for the US after escaping a parcel bomb addressed to her, and used her time in California to pursue a career as a pop star and model under the name Simone Starr.
Prosecutors claimed she was a drug kingpin who posted top-quality meth to buyers in Australia and used staff from her music and modelling business to run the operation.

But Farrow claims she was duped by her employees, who took control of her bank accounts, email addresses and mobile phones without her knowledge to run the drug network.
They included her assistant Jessica Petit and Xander Rian, who killed himself in a Hollywood apartment after US investigators arranged to interview him before Farrow’s arrest in 2009.
Judge David Arnott said Farrow derived substantial income for her role, which involved communicating with customers, creating invoices for consignments and devising false names and addresses. When arrested she

had $45,000 in two NAB accounts and $US93,000 in a Citibank account, the court heard.
Farrow, the judge said, used her proceeds from the smuggling racket to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

“Whilst I’m not able to find that she was the principal behind the criminal enterprise, I find she played a principal role,” he said.
“She played an essential and important role in a significant (criminal) enterprise using her image as a model for a cover.”

Since her arrest seven years ago, Farrow has skipped bail twice and spent four years behind bars on remand.
She pleaded guilty to importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug.

Judge Arnott took into account her sad childhood, which included sexual abuse at the hands of a stepfather, and her mother introducing her to prostitution at 17. Farrow will be eligible for parole in February 2019.

http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw...a/news-story/35e7ce4757c45a696ee078e059f6d975

Edit - More on Simone's past, regarding when her and her then partner were parcel bombed -

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...k/news-story/4b0403d7f49bbc54549187b45ae0b40f

 

[poledriver]

Sydney couple killed over 'drug dispute'

A couple whose bodies were found wrapped in sheets almost a year apart were allegedly lured to a western Sydney home and beaten to death over a drug dispute, say police.

The body of Son Thanh Nguyen, 39, was discovered in Bankstown in April 2013, while the body of his girlfriend Thi Kim Lien Do, 35, was found in bushland in West Hoxton in January 2014.

A passerby found Mr Nguyen's body in a Bankstown street gutter, wrapped in a bed sheet and with his hands bound behind his back.

A 25-year-old man was arrested on Monday in Merrylands West and charged with two counts of murder, with police expecting to make more arrests.

Police says the pair was last seen together on April 10, 2013, was ambushed by an attacker, who bound and bashed them to death at a Canley Vale home.

Detective Superintendent Mick Willing told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday that Mr Nguyen was believed to have been methamphetamine cook, but could not confirm Ms Do's involvement.

"She well may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but certainly our information is that Mr Nguyen was involved in a dispute with a group which has led to his death over drugs," Supt Willing said.

He said police were also looking into links to other investigations, with more arrests expected.

"We will be making further arrests, I can confirm that straight away," he said.

Supt Willing said police were led to the site of Ms Do's body over the course of their investigation into Mr Nguyen's death.

The 25-year-old accused was refused bail and is expected to appear at Fairfield Local Court on Tuesday, facing two counts of murder.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...-murders-of-sydney-couple#ibCvfzkKk7uP210R.99

 

[poledriver]

Mother of toddler who swallowed ice pleads not guilty in Wollongong court

A Wollongong mother has denied responsibility for her toddler ingesting the drug ice.

The 27-year-old woman from Koonawarra made her first court appearance on Wednesday after failing to turn up a fortnight ago, saying she was sick.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, came under investigation by detectives from the state's Child Abuse Squad earlier this year.

Her 21-month-old son was admitted to Wollongong Hospital in January with seizures.

Subsequent tests revealed he had consumed methylamphetamine, known as ice.

Police allege the toddler swallowed a quantity of the drug while he was alone in his mother's room.

They say the boy had slept in the room the previous evening.

According to NSW Police, methylamphetamine, cannabis, cathinone, buprenorphine and drug paraphernalia were found during a search of the home.

The mother pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis in Port Kembla Local Court.

She entered pleas of not guilty to charges of abandoning or exposing a child under the age of seven, causing danger of death and possessing several other prohibited drugs including methylamphetamine.

The mother declined to comment to the media outside the court and was driven away by friends in a waiting car.

She will face court again at a later date.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-14/mother-of-toddler-who-swallowed-ice-pleads-not-guilty/7844560

 

[poledriver]

Pictured: Seven-months-pregnant woman, 24, who will have her baby behind bars after being jailed for selling $3000 of meth a week and kept a 'tick sheet' of customers who owed her

A pregnant young woman will give birth behind bars after being convicted for dealing meth to the tune of a $3000 profit per week.
In the Bundaberg Supreme Court on Monday, Jessica Anne Robertson, whose baby is due in November, pleaded guilty to selling methamphetamine during a three-month period.
The 24-year-old dealt the drug to as many as 20 people and when her property was raided in September 2014, police found 5.9 grams of it, plus records of debts and payments, the News Mail reported.

Police also found a 'tick sheet' detailing transactions which showed she was waiting on payment of about $2300 by customers and owed suppliers about $4500.
About 12,800 messages on her phone detailed drug transactions.
However, the quantity was acknowledged as 'street level'.

The court heard how Robertson's life had began a downward spiral when she was about 18, after becoming friends with the wrong crowd.
She later lost her job as a real estate agent and began dealing in July 2014 to support her own habit.

A statement from her mother detailed how she'd physically changed, developing sores on her face and also estranged herself from her family, News Mail reported.
Judge Debra Mullins said: 'It must have been very difficult for her to describe her daughter as a junkie in order to rationalise your behaviour towards her while you were in the the throes of your addition to methamphetmine'.
The court also heard she had checked in to a live-in rehabilitation clinic for three months and was committing to getting clean.

'Hopefully you will be able to use motherhood as another incentive to remain drug free,' Judge Mullins said.
She was sentenced to three years, nine months prison, suspended after a year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...thamphetamine-birth-prison.html#ixzz4KlQYLuiD

 

[poledriver]

Byron Bay: the lost paradise

The sun is an hour down and the winter evening chill setting in as men start moving into the bush near the empty Byron Bay Markets to set up camp.

Earlier, in the dying minutes of daylight, one had wandered the nearby Woolworths supermarket yelling he was short $25 for a bed. He raised the money, found a guy he knew and bought some warmth for another night of sleeping rough.

In Byron, ice is a pain reliever and a party drug.

Byron is certainly a party town for locals and tourists. Backpackers own the week but come the weekend, Brisbane arrives en masse courtesy a two-hour dash down the freeway. So much fun also draws the down and out. Some want something to get them through the night, or the day.

Mainly its alcohol, but ice, or crystal meth (methamphetamine), the so-called "poor man's cocaine", has also become the drug of choice for some. The media has been banging on about an "ice epidemic" roaring through NSW. It affects every level: affluent suburban teenagers, the urban poor, and rural towns with large Aboriginal populations and disappearing jobs. Communities across the state have been battling the problem for about three years.

The Richmond Local Area Command – including Byron Bay – takes in the stretch of coast running between Tweed Heads and Ballina across to the Great Divide and provides a glimpse of the difficulties faced by authorities trying to stop the ice trade.

Police statistics show the number of people caught in possession or using amphetamines in the Tweed-Richmond area has increase from a handful each month to dozens since the start of 2014. There have been 100 people busted for dealing or trafficking ice in the past two years.

Police say the purity of the drug being sold has also improved since 2014. It used to be that crime groups would buy broken down cold and flu tablets, extract the pseudoephedrine, turn it into meth oil and then into ice. It was a costly and time-intensive process that also required a level of expertise to carry out. Now the drug, or at least it's precursors, are sent from overseas crime gangs who have suddenly perceived Australia as a lucrative market. Despite record busts, organised crime manages to bring so much ice into Australia that ice's wholesale price has dropped significantly.

Two years ago, kilogram of ice would cost a crime group $220,000 a kilogram – now it can be bought for between $75,000 and $95,000. Unsurprisingly, as profits soared, price has not changed.

Ice used to be a cottage industry in Australia, but much is now being imported from China.

Lufeng, in China's Guandong provence, is a favourite port for drug smugglers. Locals call it the "city of ice". Large-scale drug busts in that area are not uncommon, with two or three tonne of ice seized at a time. But law enforcement agencies say it is failing to put a dent in production.

With China being Australia's largest trade partner, a law enforcement source says shipments of the drug are hard to detect among the volume of legitimate imports. "You don't need a corrupt worker down in the docks," the source says. "If you send 10 shipments of ice from China to Australia and only one gets through you are still making money." Mexican cartels, long known for the cocaine trade, have seen the profits made in Australia and have also begun exporting ice across the Pacific.

Demand has reached such levels, and the potential profits so high, that law enforcement are now seeing instances where overseas crime groups are sending ice to Australia even before they've found a buyer – so confident they can shift their product.

Overseas crime groups will generally deal with local bikie gangs and Australian Mr Bigs who will then on sell the drugs to mid-level dealers, who then supply low-level dealers.

"It would be pretty easy for someone to take a kilogram of ice to Byron, that would give about 1500 deals," a law enforcement source says. "That would supply that township for a whole month."

Northern NSW features in police drug and alcohol records – grog is a far greater problem – because they are frenetically busy keeping a lid on a party town.

But Byron created its own crown of thorns.

Established in the late 19th century as a port when the Big Scrub of the hinterland was cleared for diary and beef cattle, it dozed off after the Second World War until the 1960s brought surfers looking for waves. The Nimbin festival in 1973 gave it wider exposure down south and fused drugs and a laid-back lifestyle with tourism. When the freeway put it within two hours of Brisbane, Byron roared into life as a party town and overseas backpackers destination.

There is a tension between the law as it applies to drugs and Byron's trademark laissez faire, the inheritance of the Nimbin days and the herd of music festivals predicated on sex, drugs and rock and roll that have erupted since 1990. These days, police are torn between enforcing the law at the festivals or turning a blind eye.

Byron is now both a money spinner and a middle-class paradise, sporting middle-class house prices and rents replete with a surprising underbelly of poverty that informs drug usage beyond the hippy, music festival rager mind set.

They say the sun is the blanket of the poor, so perhaps it is little wonder that Byron Bay can also lay claim to being homeless central.

The last census found the Richmond Valley – stretching from Ballina to Tweed Heads – had about 500 homeless people and 211 of them were sleeping rough. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said only the Sydney inner-city area had more homeless sleeping rough.

Welfare and health workers say the homelessness is also exacerbated by Byron becoming a favoured destination for people coming off rehab programs who head to northern NSW to chill out.

Not long ago, their camps seemed everywhere around Byron: there were some 20, in the bush, along the railway track, the sand dunes. But tolerance gave way to "green" hegemony: complaints came in about environmental damage to the dunes and the fire risk. Council rangers (community enforcement officers) carried out sweeps and crown lands moved in with bulldozers and cleaned out everything.

Byron Bay Community Centre community services manager Cat Seddon says rough sleepers made up only a small proportion of the town's total homeless and many were sleeping in cars or in friend's garages or friend's couches, victims of rising rents or the absence of affordable housing.

She also said drug and alcohol usage was a symptom but the cause in Byron was often mental health issues and domestic violence, a situation made worse as the Baird government scrapped funding for some local community based programs. "The social fabric that protects most people from homelessness – family, affordable housing and access to government services – are not always readily available in Byron and it's easy for people to fall through the cracks," she says.

Maybe Byron's juxtaposition of the haves and the have nots makes it too delicious to resist pointing the finger but the story remains the same in other NSW towns as they try to come to grips with the rise of ice.

In Kyogle, they ran a local ice dealer out of town.

And on the edge of the Great Divide, the beef centre of Casino has been fighting a growing reputation for surrendering many of its young to ice.

Kevin Hogan, the National Party MP for Page, says the drug had been a real problem for the town but a crackdown had stopped petty crimes. However, Krystian Gruft, of The Buttery, a not for profit community based program specialising in the treatment of alcohol and other drug misuse located in the hills behind Byron, says the age of some Casino teenagers taking part in his outreach programs due to ice usage has fallen noticeably. "Whereas we used to see kids usually 15 or 16, we now see a few who are 14, maybe less," says Gruft, manager of The Buttery's outreach programs.

Hogan says the federal government had tipped $6 million towards tackling the use of ice on the north coast and the local primary health network is in the process of appointing people to provide rehab, family support and train local GPs how to treat ice users.

On October 13, the latest Baird government's "breaking the ice" forums will be staged in Byron. It aims to help build and strengthen community partnerships by bringing together local police, health services, youth services, Family Drug Support and local non-government drug and alcohol services.

Years ago, often acting on police advice, the media gave marijuana and heroin their own epidemic treatment. Users knew the disconnect between journalism and reality but ice its different: the addiction is immediate and debilitating. Many Australians know heroine addicts who functioned at work for years but ice addicts set like the sun.

Nicqui Yazdi, leader of the BUDDI Community Action Team, says government emphasis on controlling ice by police is to miss the point.

"Perhaps the best step forward is to recognise that ice is not necessarily a policing issue but rather a health issue and a social issue," she says.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/byron-bay-the-lost-paradice-20160922-grmhwi.html

 

[consumer]

Byron Bay: the lost paradise

The sun is an hour down and the winter evening chill setting in as men start moving into the bush near the empty Byron Bay Markets to set up camp.

Earlier, in the dying minutes of daylight, one had wandered the nearby Woolworths supermarket yelling he was short $25 for a bed. He raised the money, found a guy he knew and bought some warmth for another night of sleeping rough.

In Byron, ice is a pain reliever and a party drug.

Byron is certainly a party town for locals and tourists. Backpackers own the week but come the weekend, Brisbane arrives en masse courtesy a two-hour dash down the freeway. So much fun also draws the down and out. Some want something to get them through the night, or the day.

Mainly its alcohol, but ice, or crystal meth (methamphetamine), the so-called "poor man's cocaine", has also become the drug of choice for some. The media has been banging on about an "ice epidemic" roaring through NSW. It affects every level: affluent suburban teenagers, the urban poor, and rural towns with large Aboriginal populations and disappearing jobs. Communities across the state have been battling the problem for about three years.

The Richmond Local Area Command – including Byron Bay – takes in the stretch of coast running between Tweed Heads and Ballina across to the Great Divide and provides a glimpse of the difficulties faced by authorities trying to stop the ice trade.

Police statistics show the number of people caught in possession or using amphetamines in the Tweed-Richmond area has increase from a handful each month to dozens since the start of 2014. There have been 100 people busted for dealing or trafficking ice in the past two years.

Police say the purity of the drug being sold has also improved since 2014. It used to be that crime groups would buy broken down cold and flu tablets, extract the pseudoephedrine, turn it into meth oil and then into ice. It was a costly and time-intensive process that also required a level of expertise to carry out. Now the drug, or at least it's precursors, are sent from overseas crime gangs who have suddenly perceived Australia as a lucrative market. Despite record busts, organised crime manages to bring so much ice into Australia that ice's wholesale price has dropped significantly.

Two years ago, kilogram of ice would cost a crime group $220,000 a kilogram – now it can be bought for between $75,000 and $95,000. Unsurprisingly, as profits soared, price has not changed.

Ice used to be a cottage industry in Australia, but much is now being imported from China.

Lufeng, in China's Guandong provence, is a favourite port for drug smugglers. Locals call it the "city of ice". Large-scale drug busts in that area are not uncommon, with two or three tonne of ice seized at a time. But law enforcement agencies say it is failing to put a dent in production.

With China being Australia's largest trade partner, a law enforcement source says shipments of the drug are hard to detect among the volume of legitimate imports. "You don't need a corrupt worker down in the docks," the source says. "If you send 10 shipments of ice from China to Australia and only one gets through you are still making money." Mexican cartels, long known for the cocaine trade, have seen the profits made in Australia and have also begun exporting ice across the Pacific.

Demand has reached such levels, and the potential profits so high, that law enforcement are now seeing instances where overseas crime groups are sending ice to Australia even before they've found a buyer – so confident they can shift their product.

Overseas crime groups will generally deal with local bikie gangs and Australian Mr Bigs who will then on sell the drugs to mid-level dealers, who then supply low-level dealers.

"It would be pretty easy for someone to take a kilogram of ice to Byron, that would give about 1500 deals," a law enforcement source says. "That would supply that township for a whole month."

Northern NSW features in police drug and alcohol records – grog is a far greater problem – because they are frenetically busy keeping a lid on a party town.

But Byron created its own crown of thorns.

Established in the late 19th century as a port when the Big Scrub of the hinterland was cleared for diary and beef cattle, it dozed off after the Second World War until the 1960s brought surfers looking for waves. The Nimbin festival in 1973 gave it wider exposure down south and fused drugs and a laid-back lifestyle with tourism. When the freeway put it within two hours of Brisbane, Byron roared into life as a party town and overseas backpackers destination.

There is a tension between the law as it applies to drugs and Byron's trademark laissez faire, the inheritance of the Nimbin days and the herd of music festivals predicated on sex, drugs and rock and roll that have erupted since 1990. These days, police are torn between enforcing the law at the festivals or turning a blind eye.

Byron is now both a money spinner and a middle-class paradise, sporting middle-class house prices and rents replete with a surprising underbelly of poverty that informs drug usage beyond the hippy, music festival rager mind set.

They say the sun is the blanket of the poor, so perhaps it is little wonder that Byron Bay can also lay claim to being homeless central.

The last census found the Richmond Valley – stretching from Ballina to Tweed Heads – had about 500 homeless people and 211 of them were sleeping rough. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said only the Sydney inner-city area had more homeless sleeping rough.

Welfare and health workers say the homelessness is also exacerbated by Byron becoming a favoured destination for people coming off rehab programs who head to northern NSW to chill out.

Not long ago, their camps seemed everywhere around Byron: there were some 20, in the bush, along the railway track, the sand dunes. But tolerance gave way to "green" hegemony: complaints came in about environmental damage to the dunes and the fire risk. Council rangers (community enforcement officers) carried out sweeps and crown lands moved in with bulldozers and cleaned out everything.

Byron Bay Community Centre community services manager Cat Seddon says rough sleepers made up only a small proportion of the town's total homeless and many were sleeping in cars or in friend's garages or friend's couches, victims of rising rents or the absence of affordable housing.

She also said drug and alcohol usage was a symptom but the cause in Byron was often mental health issues and domestic violence, a situation made worse as the Baird government scrapped funding for some local community based programs. "The social fabric that protects most people from homelessness – family, affordable housing and access to government services – are not always readily available in Byron and it's easy for people to fall through the cracks," she says.

Maybe Byron's juxtaposition of the haves and the have nots makes it too delicious to resist pointing the finger but the story remains the same in other NSW towns as they try to come to grips with the rise of ice.

In Kyogle, they ran a local ice dealer out of town.

And on the edge of the Great Divide, the beef centre of Casino has been fighting a growing reputation for surrendering many of its young to ice.

Kevin Hogan, the National Party MP for Page, says the drug had been a real problem for the town but a crackdown had stopped petty crimes. However, Krystian Gruft, of The Buttery, a not for profit community based program specialising in the treatment of alcohol and other drug misuse located in the hills behind Byron, says the age of some Casino teenagers taking part in his outreach programs due to ice usage has fallen noticeably. "Whereas we used to see kids usually 15 or 16, we now see a few who are 14, maybe less," says Gruft, manager of The Buttery's outreach programs.

Hogan says the federal government had tipped $6 million towards tackling the use of ice on the north coast and the local primary health network is in the process of appointing people to provide rehab, family support and train local GPs how to treat ice users.

On October 13, the latest Baird government's "breaking the ice" forums will be staged in Byron. It aims to help build and strengthen community partnerships by bringing together local police, health services, youth services, Family Drug Support and local non-government drug and alcohol services.

Years ago, often acting on police advice, the media gave marijuana and heroin their own epidemic treatment. Users knew the disconnect between journalism and reality but ice its different: the addiction is immediate and debilitating. Many Australians know heroine addicts who functioned at work for years but ice addicts set like the sun.

Nicqui Yazdi, leader of the BUDDI Community Action Team, says government emphasis on controlling ice by police is to miss the point.

"Perhaps the best step forward is to recognise that ice is not necessarily a policing issue but rather a health issue and a social issue," she says.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/byron-bay-the-lost-paradice-20160922-grmhwi.html

I know the guy in the wheel chair. Been homeless for many years. He has lost his leg since i last saw him. Many of my friends say how bad ice has got in Byron. Its causing a lot of problems.

 

[poledriver]

Yeah I was up there about a month ago for a week. It's a beautiful area but there is obviously a lot of mental health issues, addiction issues and homelessness.

A pretty good article I thought.

 

[consumer]

I used to hang with the homeless. Have lunch with them. Knew them all from the bottlo. Great people actually. Definitely mental issues and addiction but big hearts.