Hi all, went searching for a reference to this article but as best as I can tell it hasn't come up here before. What do you make of this?
SPECIALIST police have established a crime scene at a Lismore Heights home on High Street believed to be a drug laboratory used to manufacture and produce cocaine.
Richmond LAC Detective Inspector Cameron Lindsay said the production of cocaine, if confirmed by forensics, would be unusual for the Northern Rivers.
"There are processes being used that we haven't encountered a lot of and that's why we're using a forensic chemist to examine exactly what process is being undertaken here," he said.
Det Insp Lindsay said police had discovered highly explosive and dangerous chemicals at the residential Lismore Heights property.
"Obviously it's a big worry for us to see these dangerous chemicals being used in a residential area," he said.
"We will allege that there were explosive chemicals involved and posed a real danger to the public."
NSW Fire and Rescue HAZMAT officers were also on the scene providing support to the police Chemical Operations Unit to ensure hazardous materials and chemicals were dealt with safety.
Det Insp Lindsay said the warrant to search the property and subsequent establishment of a crime scene was part of an ongoing investigation into the manufacture and production of illegal drugs in the region.
"We have a dedicated team of officers that are working on this and there will be more arrests," he said.
"There will be more search warrants.
"We're not going to rest until we continue to take action against these people who are making this type of poison in this community."
Late yesterday, no arrests had been made in relation to the drug bust, however Det Insp Lindsay said he was confident arrests would be made.
http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/cocaine-made-right-under-our-noses-cocaine-factory/2702391/
Firstly I don't know what Northern Star is, it looks like a local area news source rather than a national one. This source seems to have the most pictures and details in the write up as well as a video with the police talking abuot it. While possibly sketchy and unreliable as a news source there is small references to the story elsewhere
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-10/drug-lab/6609862
https://au.prime7.yahoo.com/a1/news/a/-/local/28734944/police-dismantle-drug-lab/
And as a beyond third-hand anecdote, someone in the comments on Facebook said they had tried "australian coke". I tried to correct them saying "you have had cocaine in Australia, but it probably wasn't from coca leaf grown or processed in Australia" but they replied saying that it definitely was but they didn't want to say anything further to "incriminate" themselves, despite the public admission to having done the drug from a Facebook profile that was clearly for a real person.
I was skeptical about whether to post this at all. We all know the climate in Australia is wrong for growing the coca plants and also that the size of the area of land for it is beyond what is easily available. Also you need a high elevation to grow at. So it would seem like simply the police have mistakenly identified it as a cocaine lab and the media have run with it. There looks to be a tonne of bottles of dark brown/black liquid in the pictures suggesting whatever is being made there is being made in reasonable quantities, this doesn't look like the equivalent of a small time 'shake and bake' style meth operation.
SPECIALIST police have established a crime scene at a Lismore Heights home on High Street believed to be a drug laboratory used to manufacture and produce cocaine.
Richmond LAC Detective Inspector Cameron Lindsay said the production of cocaine, if confirmed by forensics, would be unusual for the Northern Rivers.
"There are processes being used that we haven't encountered a lot of and that's why we're using a forensic chemist to examine exactly what process is being undertaken here," he said.
Det Insp Lindsay said police had discovered highly explosive and dangerous chemicals at the residential Lismore Heights property.
"Obviously it's a big worry for us to see these dangerous chemicals being used in a residential area," he said.
"We will allege that there were explosive chemicals involved and posed a real danger to the public."
NSW Fire and Rescue HAZMAT officers were also on the scene providing support to the police Chemical Operations Unit to ensure hazardous materials and chemicals were dealt with safety.
Det Insp Lindsay said the warrant to search the property and subsequent establishment of a crime scene was part of an ongoing investigation into the manufacture and production of illegal drugs in the region.
"We have a dedicated team of officers that are working on this and there will be more arrests," he said.
"There will be more search warrants.
"We're not going to rest until we continue to take action against these people who are making this type of poison in this community."
Late yesterday, no arrests had been made in relation to the drug bust, however Det Insp Lindsay said he was confident arrests would be made.
http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/cocaine-made-right-under-our-noses-cocaine-factory/2702391/
Firstly I don't know what Northern Star is, it looks like a local area news source rather than a national one. This source seems to have the most pictures and details in the write up as well as a video with the police talking abuot it. While possibly sketchy and unreliable as a news source there is small references to the story elsewhere
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-10/drug-lab/6609862
https://au.prime7.yahoo.com/a1/news/a/-/local/28734944/police-dismantle-drug-lab/
And as a beyond third-hand anecdote, someone in the comments on Facebook said they had tried "australian coke". I tried to correct them saying "you have had cocaine in Australia, but it probably wasn't from coca leaf grown or processed in Australia" but they replied saying that it definitely was but they didn't want to say anything further to "incriminate" themselves, despite the public admission to having done the drug from a Facebook profile that was clearly for a real person.
I was skeptical about whether to post this at all. We all know the climate in Australia is wrong for growing the coca plants and also that the size of the area of land for it is beyond what is easily available. Also you need a high elevation to grow at. So it would seem like simply the police have mistakenly identified it as a cocaine lab and the media have run with it. There looks to be a tonne of bottles of dark brown/black liquid in the pictures suggesting whatever is being made there is being made in reasonable quantities, this doesn't look like the equivalent of a small time 'shake and bake' style meth operation.
