News article - Meblourne - Drug Seize

Thursday March 10, 01:41 PM


AFP seizes huge drug chemical supply




http://au.news.yahoo.com/050310/2/tflf.html

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Australian Federal Police (AFP) agents have seized what they believe to be the largest haul of chemicals to be used in drug production.

AFP spokesman Rebecca Goddard said the chemicals could have been used to make up to four million ecstasy tablets valued at $150 million.

Two men were arrested in Melbourne on Wednesday and are due to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Ms Goddard said the investigation began prior to Christmas last year, when a "suspicious importation" was identified in Sydney.

It was found the importation contained a mixture of chemicals including methylenedioxyphenyl 2 propane (MDP2P) and piperonal, used in ecstasy production.


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massive, this is a pretty big dent put in the winter ecstasy market.

Drug raids break all records

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the chemicals were intended to manufacture MDMA - the key ingredient of ecstasy - and could have produced four million pills with an estimated street value of $160 million.

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Um, the key ingredient? What, that along with glass and rat poison?

"A seizure of this quantity puts a massive dint in the production of drugs in Australia," he said.

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Also proves a lot of MDMA is (or at least was) made in Australia - not just powder or pills repressed or imported in their final state.

NO NO NO NO N ON ON ON ON ONO N ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ONO N ON ONO NO NO WAKE ME UP WAKE ME UP WAKE ME UP

Oh well....lets take more speed.

Woah looked at the drugs they owned they must've been pumping out alot of decent pills...


Yeah I agree with ^^^ Take more speed...its better than ecstasy!! (sarc)

Fuck this meth bullshit off, target dangerous cladestine labs instead of PILL PRESSES...which one does more damage in more ways than one?!?!

i suspect that we are seeing an end to the production of the greatest line of pills to be made within our country. eg; yellow doves/tulips (cup weekend, resurfaced febuary), red rolex's (of december/january) with a touch of the yellows at xmas, followed by the great bang of the orange butterflies and red russians with the last bang being in the green doves. Ofcourse this is all speculation based on my observations as a simple user. I do however wish to thank these people for taking the risks they did to produce the cleanest and purest and well dosed MDMA and or MDA pills that i believe we have seen in Melbourne/Australia to date. I would also like to speculate that the recent state of the Australian MDMA market (or atleast Melbournes) would rival anywhere else in the world and that the word "import" has lost its impact as i think Australia has stepped up to the mark and shown we are not only good at swimming, cricket, rugby and hockey. We are now among the best in good clean and therefore positively harm minimising MDMA production :D

All speculation ofcourse

hehe and if it wasnt for our corrupt cops and politicians and everyone else we might not have alot of the drugs or avaliability that we do =] i dont think anyone here has been short of gettin what they wanted. maybe with acid and stuff yes. but not speed/mdma. dont know why ppl get upset about busts like this. lol

just be glad to have seen what we have in the last 5 months people

The Age

Steven Spaliviero, 39, and Ronis Gregoriades, 31, were arrested and charged with illegal importation and trafficking a drug of dependence.

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MDMA classed as a drug of dependance?

Haha this bust happened 2km's away from me.

Dependence? I am yet to meet any person who is addicted to MDMA. Got to love the names of the boys caught as well, Spaliviero and Gregoriades! Long live immigration!

fuck in heaven

YAWWWWWWWWNNNNN!!!!

This means nothing to me. No matter how many busts there are, no matter how many records are broken, I've never noticed a shortage of pills in Newcastle.

Evidentially, we're immune to it.


Though it does suck. Two tonnes.....

so now they have taken away alot of relatively harmless MDMA destined for the black market, which means we can expect a rise in adulterated and more dangerous pills. A sad day in Australia indeed.

notice that the police still calculate their numbers at $40 a pill... humorous. but i agree with the bust causing a larger number of adulterated pills and stuff.

my innerself said:

so now they have taken away alot of relatively harmless MDMA destined for the black market, which means we can expect a rise in adulterated and more dangerous pills. A sad day in Australia indeed.

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i concur......while supply is being targetted, demand remains strong.....i see potential for plenty of harm by shonky operators who simply see $ in their eyes

Anyone wanting to see photos from the bust (identify which manufacturer is gone) needs to be at 383 La Trobe St Melbourne at 1pm today for the AFP press conference.

cries* DAMN IT ALL TO HELL, here i was today, hoping there would be some nice bikkies.... god damn!! im gunna kill someone!!

lol... i think i'm addicted to MDMA (j/k)... if only it still worked after u pop for 4 days straight hehehe.... (damn dangers and seretonin syndrome)

I'm really upset, and it seems that all the good pills in melb are about gone - pillreports hasn't been looking to promising...

if there are good pills about, somehow i expect to see a price rise, which double sucks.


FUCK THE POLICE!!!

While perhaps they're not all as large as this, you can betcha boots there's other syndicates of this nature operating in Aus. Where there's a big money market, monopolized or otherwise , there will always be those waiting in the wings to fill any gaps.

How many drums of hydrocarbons and other industrials chems must come off the docks every day? If this was not the result of a tipoff, it was either very lucky - in which case one can only assume there are other's getting away with this - or detection equipment is widely employed and extremely sophisticated.

If nothing else, it certainly demonstrates the resourcefulness and daring of these groups. What will they now do if all external sources become non-viable? I don't believe they'll give up. IMO more will instead look locally, perhaps eventually deciding the only way to be successful [?] in todays world is to be truly clandestine; obtain everything from completely inconspicuous sources.

Where I once thought local production would become more fragmented - the little guy making for friends etc - I'm now tending to think it will be the big bosses who go this way, as such a production plant would need to be large in order to be viable. Let's face it, importation, even if successful, must cost a bundle. If this same money was to be put into local resource development, the extra plant setup/ production cost would be offset in no time. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't done the sums.

From a law enforcement perspective, it's hard to say whether or not these players who do source everything locally and inconspicuously are harder to track down. Leads aside, customs must work on a bit of luck, as detecting 1 or 2 drums in 20,000 would be a nightmare. So perhaps the trail to local producers may be easier to find, as any complete clandestine setup (where all ingredients were locally sourced) would not likely be very portable.

Who knows, maybe different parts of a synth will be done in different places. Regardless, I would imagine it would be an advantage for forensic scientists who will be able to accurately profile a seized powder,pill or lab chem. Cops will have no trouble implicating anyone found with residue containing that particular analytical "signature" A good analyst may also be able to say how an ingredient was synthesized and from what. ATM forensics in this country don't have the resources to do this , but with the job positions of the future, it will surely be carried out in some if not all cases.

But make no doubt about it, local production is bound to increase as O/S sources become no longer worth the risk. Most importantly, the need to employ additional methods to make the required chemicals will translate to an increased risk for users. If upheavaled methamphetamine producers with no precursors decide to turn this way, we'll have a health situation far worse than we've previously seen with meth.

I think 9 times out of 10 they are destroyed, if they arent stolen by dodgy cops first.