NEWS: Courier-Mail - 29/01/08 'Drugs behind Gold Coast violence'

Drugs behind Gold Coast violence
By Michael Wray
January 29, 2008 01:00am

THE Gold Coast is an increasingly violent place where bullets and murder are a feature of an underworld driven by drugs.

Police sources cite the Coast's reputation as centre of drug manufacture, distribution and use as the root cause of a string of violent crimes to rock Queensland's second largest city in recent years.

Whether it's double-crossing drug dealers shooting each other or substance abusing lovers seeking revenge, drugs are a nearly unanimous common denominator of violence on the tourist strip, they say.

"A lot of it's to do with drug dependency and substance abuse," an officer said.

"We certainly have a large amount of drug dependency down here."

An examination of recent cases reveals that sex, vice and bikies have created fertile killing conditions but drug-related causes are often associated.

Five savage cases in the past three years have left two men dead, one who will not walk again, one with eight bullets in his body, another who was forced to dig his own grave and a father of three with no ears.

Police allege drugs were the motive in each case as dealers fought to maintain their share of the Coast's illicit drug market. And in a city where people strive to be seen, violent offenders have at times held no fear of scores of witnesses.

SP bookie Neil Morrison chose a swanky restaurant strip at Tedder Ave in 1999 as the setting for the stabbing murder of madam Jacqueline Leyden and drug world figure John Adadzynski.

Morrison stabbed the pair in a luxury unit before stabbing himself in the neck in an apparent suicide attempt.

He removed the knife and walked past startled diners at cafes and restaurants.

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