"News" - '4 Corners' (ABC), 15/3, re vic police drug squad corruption

Hey..

I (and I'm sure, plenty of others here) just finished watching the "Victorian edition" of a 4 corners episode dedicated entirely to corruption in the former Vic police drug squad (now the "MDID" or something) - it was announced at the start of the show that we (Melbournites) were getting a watered-down version of what the rest of the country apparently got to see, due to 'legal reasons' (read: corrupt coppers on remand still pending trial)! ... now, I've been around here quite a while, many of you have met me, and I'm certainly not involved in law/the police/informing/large scale dealing or any of that sorta shit - I merely, err.. "sample" recreational chems occasionally and have a f'n wicked time doing it .. I'd just be very interested to see what was included in the episode shown across the rest of the country that was obviously edited out in what we saw down here. I'll be going to the abc website shortly to see if there's anything useful there, but I'm sure they're smart enough to have 'watered down' whatever they have online if they did it to the broadcast.

..equally, they must be smart enough to know that there'll be a shitload of interested Victorians (myself being the voice for them here, for the moment!) who would like to see what they weren't "supposed" to, and who will easily be able to get videotapes/transcripts/whatever sent from friends/family/corrupt coppers to them from other states. Given that, could someone either enlighten me as to what we (Vics) missed, or whereabouts a downloadable/snail-mailable copy of the full program is available from?

I have no intention of running around telling everyone who'll listen and every second person who won't that "I know something you don't know, nyerrr!" regarding something this "legally serious" [insert dramatic crime-series music here] - I'm just very curious, having being pretty heavily involved (<-- intentional ambiguity ) - well, "heavily" involved in consuming it - in the "speed scene 8(" here a few years ago (not now, all those who give a fuck!) myself, as to what the full story is.

Other Vics who saw the program in question, please add support by making this a petition of sorts. ... and those who "ain't from around here", please help!

cheers..



[edit: just stuck 'email notification' on, 'cos I don't have anything like the spare (read: newstart ) time I used to to check BL out regularly!]

Not sure how people can tell you what you missed because of obvious reasons...no one would have seen both?

Not sure how people can tell you what you missed because of obvious reasons...no one would have seen both?

Click to expand...

Er, yeah.. ok, good call - [jumpstarts brain] .. oops .. but - some people may well have seen both (or recorded one & watched the other) - hello to anyone living in Albury/Wodonga .. I was driving more at maybe a discussion as to what was so "controversial" that it wasn't screened here, obviously needing contributions from those in the rest of the country who happened to watch it. And/or finding someone kind enough to supply (read into that what you will, blue boys) me with a copy of a non-censored version by whatever means available in this "hi-tech age" we live in!

There were a lot of very obvious edits (quick fades from interviewee->black->back again) all the way through the version screened here.. if nothing really spectacular was said then I guess this thread will die in the arse and that'll be the end of it. Otherwise, as I said, I'm curious.. I nearly got screwed over by a (retrospectively realised) victorian undercover ~5 years back, so I'm just interested to know what was so "hot" that it had to be editied out. [paranoid] But then, perhaps the ABC is in cohorts with the anti-pirating arm of the AFP and just pretended to show a sugar coated version in Vic to stir dickheads like me up, track 'em and bust 'em! [/paranoid]

Whatever.. whether I "find out what I missed" or not, a discussion on what people thought of the program generally would be interesting, IMNSHO

---

"There is an area of the mind that could be called unsane, beyond sanity, but yet not insane..."

i wanna know what substances the ABC didnt want us to know about

They beeped over a few refferences to the occasional drug. Did the interstaters get that info???

I would guess the names of accused and chemical supply companies involved would have been removed from the Victorian eddition. I doubt it would have been heavily censored.

I didn't hear any beeps, and the main drug precursor mentioned was pseudoephedrine. The company name was Sigma. I don't recall other reagents/ reactants mentioned, although these are (have been) easily sourced through various industries.

I didn't hear any beeps, and the main drug precursor mentioned was pseudoephedrine. The company name was Sigma. I don't recall other reagents/ reactants mentioned, although these are (have been) easily sourced through various industries.

Click to expand...

Phase - there were no 'beeps' (waaay too obvious), but as another respondant said, there were many obvious silences when a particular "important chemical" (for 'speed' manufacture, and not psuedoephedrine, which was discussed openly) was mentioned. From lip-reading, which I'm certainly no expert at, it appeared to start with "me..." or "ma..." .. anyone else pick that up? There was a "heavily restricted chemical" mentioned at least half a dozen times without actually revealing the name of said chemical. I have no interest in 'speed' manufacture - to paraphrase an old friend, I take drugs, not sell/make them, so it's really of little interest to me!


But, anyway.. at least one, if not more, other precursors besides psuedo were mentioned, but conveniently blanked out.. "beeping" is the domain of commercial, psuedo ()-dramatic television, not the abc/sbs (generally) ... there were just _many_ obvious omissions in what was screened (at least in victoria) that I'd like to be filled in on..

cheers..!

That member of the drug squad they referred to as being a major player with 5.5kgs and having no photos of him was out of prison on bail in yesterdays news. He has already served a year. Detective Strawhorn. I think.

lsd303 I must admit I watched a tape of the show in a room full of chattering people and I was constantly distracted. I'll watch it again.

The only me or ma sounding start to a "drug" chemical which springs to mind is methylamine, a controlled and watched chemical since the 60's. It is required to make meth from the ketone phenyl-2-propanone or P2P. But pseudo reduction does not require it as the "methylamine" is already attached to the pseudoephedrine molecule. I can't understand why such things are not spoken. Ridiculous making such things indecent.

Off topic, but it's really stupid to hide or conceal details regarding the production of illegal things. Around 20 years ago, Electronics Australia posted a 12 or so page article on how to build an atomic bomb using a 2 story house. It even showed the structural work needed to support the lead cage which is needed to shield the operator while working with radioactive uranium or plutonium. A friend of my boss who was an atomic physicist, saw no reason why the plan wouldn't work. If you had the plutonium or enriched uranium that is. But the article also told you where it was stored in Australia, and even outlined a strategy for stealing it 8(

Bottom line is the article was done was a humorous overtone. Why? because no-one was considered to be stupid enough to do it. I think that if someone seriously intended to make a bomb - or drugs for that matter- they would not be stopped by un-disclosure in media reporting.

Likewise, unless someone has lost/developed the ethical view that making drugs is ok, mentioning the names of chemicals isn't going to have them knocking up drugs that evening - or anytime.