NEWS: $540 million bust!!!

[johnboy]

apart from that $20m bust last year from Italy i think it was??

It was actually in April of 2005, almost two years ago now. link

 

[johnboy]

I wonder if this was linked to the other bust a few weeks ago

From one of the articles above:

Last night's raid was linked to the seizure of 340 litres of the chemical by Victorian police in a raid in Geelong on December 18 last year.

 

[hoptis]

From News.com.au blog... just thought I'd post a few comments here to get a rise out of some of you

Readers' Comments: Ecstasy 'greater threat than ice'

Whenever you do drugs, you have no idea who has made it or what's in it. Whether it's ice, e, dope or whatever, it's all nasty stuff. Drug users all take their own life in their hands and they'll get no sympathy from me nor a lot of other people when they screw their lives up. How much of the world's crime, violence and death is caused by drugs? How many people in jail are druggies or are in there for drug related crimes? Drugs are the scourge of the planet.

Posted by: bob of perth 2:54pm today
Comment 37 of 37

I never understand why people would voluntarily take ecstacy - when it is cut with washing powder, rat droppings and whatever else is lying around at the time. The drug dealers must laugh their heads off at what people are prepared to consume in search of a high.

Posted by: Bill of Manly 2:16pm today
Comment 29 of 37

Ice is a drug of addiction. Ecstasy is a drug of recreation. Comparing the two is like calling all social drinkers alcoholics. Obviously the greater community needs more education on this matter.

Posted by: Michael of Sydney 1:26pm today
Comment 21 of 37

http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23600,21009386-2,00.html

 

[lil angel15]

Rat droppings???...... Hmmm I have not heard that one before 8)

 

[melburn_madnesss]

^^ they are my favorite kind, there is just something about the taste

 

[Bent Mk2]

The drug dealers must laugh their heads off at what people are prepared to consume in search of a high.

Nup, but drug users are laughing their arses off at the ill-informed, baseless comments made by Bill of Manly.

 

[Urbie]

This is nothing guys. I mean nearly everytime someone posts news about big busts, there's always someone going "ohhhhh sad day for Australia, etc ..." that kind of crap. Who Cares!

Just look at the old Bluelight posts dating back to 2001 of news detailing big busts and to now, have these big busts in the past stopped or made harder to find yourself illict substances of your choice?

This country is flooded with illict substances, and it's all about who you know your connections.

I would like to see News of busts merged into one sticky thread or something, like the Drugs in Media forum, where they merge all news of busts in one thread.

Meh. My 2 cents.

 

[my innerself]

wow thats a big bust, I wonder if its connected to the other bust they had had last week? These guys certainly are well connected. Im asuming there must be a MDMA super lab somewhere in Australia.

 

[Misterwize2]

I imagine that theres still plenty of MDP2P left out there.

With a tiny proportion of shipping containers getting searched and thousands getting delivered daily through Australias many ports then I imagine its pretty easy to get it shipped out here with the right contacts in China.

 

[johnboy]

wow thats a big bust, I wonder if its connected to the other bust they had had last week?

Does anyone bother to read the actual article anymore? Or any of the replies in the thread. I mean c'mon! 8)

 

[lil angel15]

wow thats a big bust, I wonder if its connected to the other bust they had had last week? These guys certainly are well connected. Im asuming there must be a MDMA super lab somewhere in Australia.

Yes it was connected to the Bust in Victoria.

Last night's raid was linked to the seizure of 340 litres of the chemical by Victorian police in a raid in Geelong on December 18 last year.

Lil angel15

 

[scumlord]

I really doubt that losing that much will do anything, the cost to buy that amount of chemicals would cost 1/100 in China/Asia. You can bet twice as much is in circulation, or enough MDMA has been synth'd for a few months/years supply.

*REMEMBERS* when people thought locals were pure shit, looks like that has changed It was only a matter of time.

Will Australia be the next huge exporter of MDMA to the world? I bet you in a few years it probably will be.

 

[hoptis]

Lucky break led to $540m drugs bust
Dylan Welch
January 4, 2007 - 4:21PM

A lucky break for uniformed police in Victoria has led to one of Australia's biggest drug seizures in Sydney, police say.

The NSW State Crime Command's South-East Asian Crime Squad, Victorian Police and Australian Federal Police last night raided an industrial complex in Castle Hill where they found the chemical which had the potential to make up to two tonnes of ecstasy (MDMA).

The fire brigade and hazardous materials teams were called in to assist, as was the drug squad's specialist clandestine laboratory section.

They seized 1900 litres of a chemical believed to be methylenedioxyphenyl-2propanone, otherwise known as liquid ecstasy.

It was one of the biggest drug seizures in Australian history, NSW Police said. No new arrests have followed last night's seizure.

The raid, at 8pm, follows the seizure of 340 litres of the chemical, with the potential to make $51 million worth of ecstasy, by Victoria Police in Geelong on December 18 last month.

The investigation began when Victoria Police officers stopped to help a broken-down hire van in Geelong and stumbled across $51 million worth of the liquid.

Two men - Patrick Pak Lamb Li, 50, from the Sydney suburb of Campsie, and Singaporean Keng Chuan Koh, 27 - were arrested and charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of a drug of dependence.

They faced Melbourne Magistrates Court and were remanded in custody to reappear in court on July 13.

Police today said their arrest was critical to last night's drug bust in Sydney.

"Basically, it was the starting point for this investigation," Victorian drug detective Pat Boyle told reporters in Sydney.

Detective Inspector Boyle said the uniformed officers who stopped to help the driver of the van in Geelong were lucky.

"With any investigation there's always some luck," he said. "Basically, the uniformed members were surprised at what they got. The major drug task force was called in ... and from there we started looking into it.''

Ecstasy bust to have 'national impact'

The seizure would have a "national impact" on the domestic drug market, a top police officer involved in the bust said today.

"It's such a large amount, with the potential of two tonnes of MDMA to hit the streets, that it would have, I would assume, a huge disruption to the marketplace [and] should have, I hope, a national impact," Commander of the NSW South East Asian Crime Squad, Superintendent Deborah Wallace, told smh.com.au this morning.

The Victorian police sought the assistance of the NSW police when their investigation led over the state border.

"Further inquires led us to that factory complex last night, where we executed a search warrant," Superintendent Wallace said.

The Age

 

[scumlord]

LOL @ 'national impact'.

 

[IWoody]

I really doubt that losing that much will do anything, the cost to buy that amount of chemicals would cost 1/100 in China/Asia. You can bet twice as much is in circulation, or enough MDMA has been synth'd for a few months/years supply.

*REMEMBERS* when people thought locals were pure shit, looks like that has changed It was only a matter of time.

Will Australia be the next huge exporter of MDMA to the world? I bet you in a few years it probably will be.

well take a look at what music we are allready exporting......

Eg.. Pendulum.. Presets.... every electronic genre has an aussie hit nowdays.....

and ecstacy is just culture now... my huge new years was at mrs macquaries chair for the fireworks.... SO MANY PPL OFF GUTS!!.. its not just raves and a like dropping on saturdays... next monday when someone is vauge... make an assumption..

 

[Mr Blonde]

The investigation began when Victoria Police officers stopped to help a broken-down hire van in Geelong and stumbled across $51 million worth of the liquid.

Two men - Patrick Pak Lamb Li, 50, from the Sydney suburb of Campsie, and Singaporean Keng Chuan Koh, 27 - were arrested and charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of a drug of dependence.

Ok first thing, who gave it the name 'liquid ecstacy?' I'm betting on the media, since MDP2P has no recreational value by itself, and besides which I thought liquid E was more commonly used by drug users to refer to GHB.

Secondly, why are they being charged with trafficking a 'drug of dependence'? I didn't think XTC was a dependance-forming drug, because of it's mechanism of action mainly, and also they weren't even transporting E; they were caught with the precursor. Isn't there a controlled substances/precursors/synthesis law they could be charged under?

 

[zegs]

It really irks me when ignorant bigots wank on about the violence etc. caused by drugs with absolutely no consideration to the personal (life interruption, imprisonment, criminalisation), community and micro-war scale of violence that goes hand in hand with any national and international drug war.

[Directed at paper reader comments].

 

[Biscuit]

^ MR Blonde: You raise some good points.

MDP2P's label?

I have never heard of MDP2P being referred to as liquid ecstasy. Given all the problems with liquid ecstasy and GHB this is really going to confuse things further.

At first I assumed that the bust must have related to MDMA freebase, sitting as a liquid in those containers awaiting conversion into MDMA powder at a later date.

To refer to a precursor chemical as a liquid form of ecstasy is plainly wrong. These persons were guilty of possession of precursor chemicals, probably one of the most serious of all, and no doubt would have been involved in the eventual manufacture of MDXX substances at one or more chemical labs nearby.

(Or who knows, maybe they were simply in the business of supplying MDMA precursors to a number of different MDMA manufacturers across the eastern seaboard?!)

What this does show is the potential for a lot more MDA to be made. If the supply of MDP2P becomes widespread, expect some manufacturers to look to manufacturing MDA, because the other chemical required to transform the MDP2P to MDA is plain old ammonia (combined with appropriate reagents) as opposed to methylamine, one of the most watched precursors on Earth. I suppose you might say if they can get MDP2P then surely methylamine is not far away, but this may not necessarily be the case.)


Mick Keelty's comments are frustrating in some respects although good in others, as most would agree the media's fascination with ice has become overblown.

As Commish for the Federal Police he is of course mainly concerned with reducing the supply of illicit drugs across Australia, particularly from overseas, and ensuring that the really big time criminals do not profit from the drug trade. However, an implication of what he is saying is that ecstasy, at the street level, has the potential to cause as much harm as crystal methylamphetamine to the community generally and therefore warrants as much of a focus, a contention that I cannot agree with. If he is merely talking about the fact that the focus on ice has allowed the availability of MDMA to flourish then fair enough, but you would surely rather your community awash with MDMA than awash with high quality meth or heroin!


Drugs Laws

Secondly, why are they being charged with trafficking a 'drug of dependence'? I didn't think XTC was a dependance-forming drug, because of it's mechanism of action mainly, and also they weren't even transporting E; they were caught with the precursor. Isn't there a controlled substances/precursors/synthesis law they could be charged under?

The phrases used by the various legislatures to label chemicals are often misleading. In WA, "prohibited drugs" for the purposes of WA's Misuse of Drugs legislation, is defined to include "drugs of addiction". Drugs of addiction are simply defined to include all substances in schedule 8 and schedule 9 of both the National Scheduling Standard of Drugs and Poisons (SUSDP) and any extra ones specified in WA's Poisons Act.

MDMA is schedule 9 because it has high potential for abuse and "no recognised therapeutic use". As we well know researchers in the US are presently proving that last statement very wrong.

Another drug in schedule 9 is LSD. This is clearly not a drug of addiction in the sense of how you or I would understand that term, but labelled a drug of addiction nonetheless.

In WA there are also certain chemicals dubbed specified drugs and these drugs are also considered "prohibited drugs" for the purposes of WA's drugs legislation. In the list among other drugs such as steriods, which the WA government thought needed to be given special status even though not included in schedule 8 or 9, there are precursor chemicals such as acetic anhydride and P2P.

Therefore, you can, in WA at least, be charged for possession of a "prohibited drug" under the drugs legislation even though the chemical is a precursor. Other States may well be the same, where the term might instead be "drug of dependence" even though it is not a drug at all.

WA also has new precursor legislation for a large number of chemicals, although the penalties for these offences are substantially less than similar offences for "prohibited drugs". Of course, there is always the possibility that those in possession of precursors could be charged with attempting to manufacture a prohibited drug, but in a peculiar case such as this one it is probably not open.

Somewhat astonishingly, MDP2P is not presently listed as a specified drug so I am not entirely sure what charges would result should a similar find be located in WA. They may well be relatively minor which is quite remarkable!


All in all this is potentially 20 million 100 mg MDMA pills. I still think it is relatively significant.

 

[Mr Blonde]

Thanks for the very informative reply, Biscuit.

I agree with you on Mr. Keelty's comments. Of course, since he is in charge of law enforcement I guess you really can't expect any better. It would be good though if the authorites would pick up on the comparitive consequences of using these drugs. I have never heard of anyone having a 'violent psychosis' as a result of MDMA usage, and as with most illegal psychoactives the vast majority of deaths are the result of the drug prohibition.

Drugs don't kill people! Black market quality controls (which are non-existant) kill people!

 

[goodfellar]

The crime syndicate involved will lay low till the heat is off and then continue business as usual so the bust will only effect local supply till its all back on track. Unless other people are tipped off and or the lab is siezed. But i'm pretty sure it would be all getting relocated by now.