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News Mega Merged Drug Bust Thread v. "Drug Wars" a Bust

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
Joined
Nov 3, 1999
Messages
84,999
Mega Merged Drug Bust Thread v. 3.0

Previous versions:

1.0

2.0

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DRUGS, firearms, stolen property and assets to the tune of more than $3 million have been seized by Kensington Detectives after police targeted a drug syndicate running from multiple Perth suburbs.

Eight search warrants were carried out in Welshpool, East Perth, Joondalup and Mirrabooka on Thursday, as part of an ongoing investigation targeting the sale and distribution of drugs in the south east metropolitan district.

Police say at one of the homes detectives found illicit drugs, cash, a loaded shotgun, modified and homemade firearms, stolen jewellery and electronic goods, and a stolen Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Organised Crime Squad officers were called into one of the houses after detectives identified a methamphetamine drug lab.

Proceeds of Crime Squad officers seized a $400,000 bank account, seven commercial properties and one residential property, pending further investigation and judicial processes.

The total value of the assets is estimated to be more than $3 million.

The police operation resulted in seven people being charged with a variety of offences, and further people are expected to be charged.

Acting Detective Inspector Tom Tristram from the South East Metropolitan District Office said illicit drugs are causing much harm in the community.

?€œFrom what we have established so far it would appear stolen property may have been used to purchase drugs, which contributes to the level of crime such as burglaries and stealing offences,?€™ he said.

?€œI encourage anyone with information about suspected drug dealing to come forward and make contact via Crime Stoppers.

?€œInformation received from the public helps direct our resources to where we can make the most impact.?€

A 21-year-old man from East Perth was charged with offences relating to the preparation and possession of a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply, and the possession of stolen or unlawfully obtained property.

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A 54-year-old man from Welshpool has been charged with several offences relating to the sale of prohibited drugs and the possession of stolen or unlawfully obtained property.

Police did not specify what the other five people were charged with, but said inquiries were continuing in relation to other outstanding persons.



Source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wes...g/news-story/ac9fe85435f64de79b7e20483d059428
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Myanmar police reportedly seize $40m worth of heroin, methamphetamine

Myanmar police have seized more than $40 million worth of heroin and methamphetamine, a senior investigator says, in the largest drugs bust so far this year.

The narcotics were reportedly found in a container vehicle on an industrial zone in Mandalay and included 82 kilograms of methamphetamine, 24 kilograms of heroin, 6.8 million stimulant tablets and 15 kilograms of opium.

"It's worth about 37 billion kyats ($40.5 million)," a senior police official of the anti-drugs squad in Naypyidaw told AFP.

"This is the biggest seizure of 2016."

The official said the main suspect was still not apprehended.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, sits at the heart of the infamous Golden Triangle, which also covers parts of Thailand and Laos, and has been a hotbed of narcotics production for decades despite repeated government vows to tackle the scourge.

The impoverished nation remains the world's second largest opium producer after Afghanistan while cartels increasingly churn out methamphetamine tablets.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has said methamphetamine dominates the global market for synthetic drugs and is expanding significantly in South-East and East Asia.

"It's scary as drugs trafficking has been increasing and spreading around the country," the senior drugs investigator in Naypyidaw said.

Last July, Myanmar seized more than $134 million worth of stimulant tablets from a private container vehicle in northern Yangon.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-06/$40m-worth-of-drugs-seized-in-myanmar-police-says/7224844
 
Huge cocaine haul seized off coast of the Galapagos

Ecuador seized 1.9 tonnes of cocaine off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, as traffickers ply new routes to smuggle their illicit cargo, officials said on Sunday.

The operation conducted Thursday and Friday -- part of a joint effort by police and the Ecuadoran navy -- intercepted the equivalent of more than seven million individual doses of the contraband drug, the interior ministry announced.

The shipment had an estimated street value of some $40 million.

Traffickers, many based in Colombia, are exploiting a vast and expanding swath of ocean, from one end of the Americas to the other, for the illicit drug trade, officials said.

The cocaine seized last week appeared to have traveled from coastal areas near the border of Colombia and Ecuador.

The Galapagos archipelago, located 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) west of Ecuador, has a fragile ecosystem that harbors the largest number of different animal species on the planet.

It has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...ff-coast-of-the-galapagos#AA8mBLRqkhjjfSzE.99
 
Woman flushes keys down toilet, gets arrested for drugs
March 12, 2016

A Spirit Lake, Iowa woman was arrested on drug charges in Chamberlain on Tuesday after she accidentally flushed her car keys down a toilet.

Anna Reed, 57, lost her rental car keys in a rest stop toilet on I-90 near the Chamberlain exit, Chamberlain police said.

Officers responded to her 911 call and found out she had an outstanding warrant in Iowa for possession of a controlled substance. Reed admitted to officers that she had marijuana in her car and a locksmith was called to unlock it.

Inside, police found a large amount of prescription pills and a small amount of marijuana.

Reed was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession or use of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.

Police were not able to retrieve the rental car keys from the toilet.

http://www.argusleader.com/story/ne...eys-down-toilet-gets-arrested-drugs/81685936/

NSFW:
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lol yeh no doubt.

Today the lazy cops have this going on -


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NSW Police ‏@nswpolice 19m19 minutes ago
Police launch state-wide campaign mobilising members of the public against the drug “ice” at 12:00 today #periscope

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Pills strewn across apartment awnings after Gold Coast 'drug cook' blows door off oven

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An alleged drug cook has blown the door off an oven, sparking the evacuation of a multi-level apartment building on the Gold Coast.

Police say a batch of drugs exploded about 5am (AEST) today, sending the oven door flying and activating the Broadbeach building's sprinkler system.

Residents told 9NEWS hundreds of pills fell from the third floor of the building after the explosion.

It is unclear if they were thrown or if they were expelled by the force of the blast.

Officers arrested a 23-year-old man who tried the flee the scene. He's being interviewed.

No one was hurt in the drama.

The fire service said the explosion sparked a small fire but the building's sprinkler system put it out.


- http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...-cook-blows-door-off-oven#QGZpctFr8wCgrpyz.99
 
Australian Federal Police declare major victory over global ecstasy cartel kingpin

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James Kinch (middle) being extradited from Thailand by AFP agent Brett Thompson (left) and Commander Glen McEwen (right). (Supplied)

The Australian Federal Police have declared a major victory with a global ecstasy cartel key player jailed for more than 22 years.

James Henry Kinch, 57, yesterday pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to four charges in relation to conspiring to import a commercial quantity of drugs or precursors and money laundering, and was handed down a sentence of 22.5 years in prison.

He was sentenced for conspiring to import 1.1 tonnes of ecstasy – the equivalent of six million pills – and money laundering up to $200 million.

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Kinch was one of several figures who oversaw a global drug ring distributing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Dutch cartel-manufactured ecstasy pills to Australia, News Corp Australia reports.

His sentencing comes nine years after the AFP first began an international multi-agency, 14-country probe to smash the Haklander cartel – known as the Breda Group – which also operates in Europe, the UK and the US.

The probe previously helped to expose then-NSW Crime Commissioner assistant director Mark Standen’s part in assisting Kinch worked with the importation of cartel narcotics.

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Police say the cartel was smuggling ecstasy into Australia by concealing it in horticultural products. (Supplied)

Standen was arrested and charged for his part in June 2008 and sentenced to 22 years in jail.

Kinch was also arrested in Thailand the same year and extradited, however his name was subsequently suppressed in court proceedings, owing to ongoing police investigations.

AFP Commander Glen McEwen said the operation has effectively dismantled the syndicate, beginning with the arrest of cartel founders Peter Dekker and Ron Haklander.

At least 20 other members of the cartel in the Netherlands and Australia are currently serving time in jail.

Another major cartel figure was fatally thrown by his cohorts from the window of a Holland office block, while those who assisted police have gone into hiding or witness protection programs.

Kinch's sentence carries a minimum non-parole period of 16 years. He will not be eligible until February 2024.

- http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...stasy-ring-kingpin-jailed#f77mfWyqA2kzWD26.99
 
Three men arrested after more than 1000 cannabis plants were found in north-west Sydney

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Police have arrested three men after the discovery of more than 1000 cannabis plants in Riverstone, north-west of Sydney.

NSW Police made the bust during the execution of a search warrant at a commercial property on Victoria Street around 9am today.

Officers discovered more than 1000 cannabis plants and a hydroponic cultivation set-up.

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Three men were arrested and taken to Quakers Hill police station for questioning.

Police remain at the scene and are examining evidence.

They expect to dismantle the set-up this afternoon, with investigations continuing.

The drugs could have an estimated street value of $5 million.

- http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...ound-in-north-west-sydney#hvBDbi73Dzud5rHG.99
 
Ecstasy bust: Sydney cafe was hub of major global drug cartel

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EXCLUSIVE

TO anyone giving anything more than a slight glance, the men sitting at the outdoor table sipping their coffees each week were like any other tradies taking a break before their next job or delivery.

But from this café on the carpark rooftop above the Supa Centa Moore Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was run the most significant and sophisticated ecstasy trafficking operations in Australia by one of the world’s largest synthetic drugs cartels.

It was from this innocuous site, criminal gangs would collect their vans and cars stuffed with commercial quantities of ecstasy in an elaborate switch, to sell across the country.
News Corp Australia can today reveal for the first time the full extent of the international operation that was carried out in full view here and other public places for more than two decades and involved multiple tonnes of illicit drugs worth hundreds of millions of dollars by the powerful cartel.

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The sophistication of the operation was in its simplicity and such was its success, the cartel’s godfathers even came out to Australia to spend their spoils in lavish evenings of fine food, wine and women at Sydney’s brothels.

The role of Mark Standen, one time deputy of the embattled NSW Crime Commission who was sentenced in 2011 for his role in conspiring to import drugs and acting as the “eyes and ears” for the cartel in the southern hemisphere was significant for who he was but the principal of the Australian arm of the group was James Henry Kinch, or just Jimmy to his acquaintances and cohorts.

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Jimmy, a dual Irish-English national, would act as banker for the group and would travel to Melbourne regularly to launder millions of dollars in cash from the operation and send it to secret bank accounts in Holland and elsewhere.

In one drop alone he had a sports bag with so much money, he could hardly carry it to the corrupt Melbourne money exchange and later also a Sydney money exchange.

Lex, one of the cartel’s trusted lieutenants was the first dispatched to Australia in 2002 and told to start up a front company called Rosa Nova, ostensibly importing grower supplies and gardening products. He was to piggyback his consignments of hollowed out pots stuffed with ecstasy, through a legitimate horticulture importer in Castle Hill; a common practice for importers to share shipping containers and costs. For each successful shipment of drugs, hidden in growing pots and PVC piping in Rosa Nova’s pallets, Lex was to get $50,000. He arrived in Australia in January to set the plan up and meet a man he was told was to only ever be known as Jimmy. It is suspected the cartel had already been shipping ecstasy to Australia in the 1990s, there was flight records evidence one of the cartel principals Peter Dekker was himself here in 1999, but the method in horticulture was new and had been a big success with dozens of shipments to the United States for a local cartel led by members of Miami’s Jewish community in that year and previous years.

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At the Intercontinental Hotel, Lex who to most had the annoying habit of wearing two expensive Rolex watches at the same time, met Jimmy and planned out the plot centred around the Castle Hill consignments to be transported onto a large shed at the then named Miller’s Self Storage facility, now Kennards, in Moore Park which the pair rented under the fake Rosa Nova company name. The cartel had for some time already rented another shed at the site and such was their stash eventually a third.

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The first consignment of about six pallets arrived almost immediately after he arrived to Sydney’s docks and after clearing Customs, travelled onto firstly Castle Hill then onto the Miller’s storage shed Number 585. In among the stacks of 90cm growing tubs were PVC pipes stuff with ecstasy pills branded with a kangaroo logo, “Bacardi” and “Safe Sex”. Wholesale the cartel could sell each pill to a distributor for $12 to $14 but on the street they were worth up to $30 each. Lex and Kinch then came up with the idea of how to transfer the bags of pills to distributors for on-sale.

The distributors would rent their own cars and vans and drive them across the road to the Supa Centa. They would then park, leaving the keys in the sun visor or ashtray and wait at the upper level carpark café. A simple nod or thumbs up in the right direction of a certain café table would prompt Lex and Kinch to then take their car, drive to the storage facility, load it up, drive it back to the Supa Centa for the distributors to drive away their haul.

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“It was easy to meet customers there and take receipt of the customer’s van, the other thing was that Supa Centa was located about 150 metres from Miller’s Storage and it was only a short drive and as it happens there were also numerous escape possibilities from that spot,” Lex explained to the syndicate’s principals back in Holland. The whole process would take about 45 minutes.

Distributors came from all over Australia, notably South Australia, Brisbane and Melbourne and even the Northern Territory. Sydney’s market was collected by largely by a Lebanese crime group, an expat British gang from the North Shore and Manly and a notorious English-born Australian criminal figure who cannot be named for legal reasons. Each distributor would collect anything up to 200,000 pills at a time.

Once the pass off had been made Kinch would go to an internet café in Coogee and using a secret account report to Holland the shipment had been made. He and his associates would then celebrate at the Bondi Hotel. A second shipment came in a few months later in August then another, then another. Such was the success, Lex and Kinch moved to Australia, the former also planned to bring his family over as he began to look at buying property. The operation would go for years the cartel had decided. But then it spectacularly collapsed after police inadvertently stumbled across a suspicious van loaded with PVC. Lex was also skimming some of the product for himself and to sell himself to a figure in Chinatown. The cartel would abandon Australia for a bit but then returned to a new method using Kinch and some new associates.


Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/ecs...l/news-story/640ad5c9215db2e93586cbfab4419a82
 
Three men arrested after more than 1000 cannabis plants were found in north-west Sydney

http%3a%2f%2fprod.static9.net.au%2f_%2fmedia%2fimages%2f2016%2fmarch%2f16%2f160317_riverstone_1.ashx


Police have arrested three men after the discovery of more than 1000 cannabis plants in Riverstone, north-west of Sydney.

NSW Police made the bust during the execution of a search warrant at a commercial property on Victoria Street around 9am today.

Officers discovered more than 1000 cannabis plants and a hydroponic cultivation set-up.

http%3a%2f%2fprod.static9.net.au%2f_%2fmedia%2fimages%2f2016%2fmarch%2f16%2f160317_riverstone_3.ashx%3fw%3d603


Three men were arrested and taken to Quakers Hill police station for questioning.

Police remain at the scene and are examining evidence.

They expect to dismantle the set-up this afternoon, with investigations continuing.

The drugs could have an estimated street value of $5 million.

- http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...ound-in-north-west-sydney#hvBDbi73Dzud5rHG.99

Some more photo's of the bust:

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NSW Police Force added 5 new photos.

Police have executed a search warrant on a house south of Queanbeyan today and located $1.4 million worth of drugs.

Just after 8am (Thursday 17 March), officers attached to Monaro Drug and Property unit as well as Monaro Local Area Command attended a house in Hutchinson Place, Burra.

During the search warrant, police will allege they located a hydroponic system used to grow cannabis as well as dried cannabis leaves.

A total of 282 cannabis plants were seized with a street value of $1.4 million dollars, as well as 30 kilograms of cannabis leaf with an estimated value $20,000.

Officers also located and seized over $7,000 in cash and steroids.

A 28-year-old man was arrested and taken to Queanbeyan Police Station. He was charged with cultivating a prohibited plant (large quantity) possession of a prohibited drug (commercial quantity), dealing with proceeds of crime (currency) and use of electricity without authority.

He has been bail refused to appear at Queanbeyan Local Court today (Thursday 17 March 2016).

NSFW:
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Hard to say. As with large ice busts it doesn't seem to make much difference. There's always plenty of ice and always plenty of weed. It just depends on who you know an where you live etc.

Even with all the huge out door crops the cops eradicate and these hydro ones it doesnt seem to make any difference. The cops will harp on about how they are lowering the availability of whatever drug and that street prices will rise but i'm not sure that is true really.

Similarly with the huge ice busts the cops and customs do, by all reports there is still huge amounts around and the prices have been reported to have dropped in many peoples circles over the last few years.
 
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