NEWS: thewest.com.au-May 20th, 2008 - "Ecstasy raid nets record WA haul (45KG)"

[jesusisawombat]

NEWS: thewest.com.au-May 20th, 2008 - "Ecstasy raid nets record WA haul (45KG)"

Ecstasy raid nets record WA haul

20th May 2008, 6:00 WST

Police have made the biggest ecstasy bust in WA history, seizing 45kg of powdered MDMA believed to have been smuggled into the State from Europe by an east coast drugs syndicate.

Armed police swooped on a house in suburban Lockridge yesterday, arresting five men and seizing a machine for pressing drug tablets.

Almost all the men allegedly involved were from the Eastern States and it is understood police believe the men intended to use the house as a base to manufacture the pills for national distribution.

A spokeswoman from the Australian Federal Police said officers had arrested a 58-year-old Sydney man, a 31-year-old Melbourne man, a 39-year-old Queensland man, a 40-yearold Queensland man and a 40-yearold Perth man.

It is known the group had been under surveillance for at least two weeks. All are expected to be charged with importation offences and should appear in court today.

The raid caps a long-running operation involving WA Police, the AFP, Customs and the Australian Crime Commission.

The MDMA could have produced at least 150,000 pills, though it may have produced far more had the powder been cut with other agents.

Cdr Jamie Strauss, of the AFP, said the operation had done major damage to a well-organised criminal operation.

“This arrest highlights the cooperation between State, Federal and overseas law enforcement agencies,” Cdr Strauss said.

“This is a very significant seizure, not just for WA but for Australia and it’s saved the Australian community around $13 million in associated health and social costs.”

Just last month, the head of the Netherlands-based Synthetic Drugs Unit, one of the foremost groups in the world tackling the ecstasy menace, warned that shipments containing millions of tablets of ecstasy were believed to be on the way to Australia.

It was reported that Dutch national public prosecutor Cees van Spierenburg claimed Chinese and European criminals were sending precursor drugs to the Netherlands for manufacture, with MDMA powder or pills then being taken to ports in Europe and shipped to Australia.

The AFP works closely with European authorities to combat the illegal drugs trade and has three officers based in The Hague. A senior Dutch police officer is stationed in Canberra.

NICK BUTTERLY

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=145&ContentID=73945

Just a little note, 45KG being made into 150,000 pills would be 300mg of MDMA per pill, so at 120mg per pill it would make 375,000 pills.

 

[Pistachio]

300mg a pill would be quite a pill. How hard could it be to get a half competant drug expert?

Also this almost answers my question in another thread as to whether there was much importation of MDMA in powdered form.

 

[Mr Blonde]

God damn it...we could have had some decent pills going around for once.

 

[rogan]

more likely a million shit pills...

 

[Pistachio]

God damn it...we could have had some decent pills going around for once.

Hey, the article said there are millions of pills coming in from Netherlands anyway. I would say this is the tip of the iceberg.


Heres to more quality imported pills thereby lessning adulterants. Or so you would assume.

 

[Morissey]

“This is a very significant seizure, not just for WA but for Australia and it’s saved the Australian community around $13 million in associated health and social costs.”

More like increasing health and social costs...

 

[bingos]

wow big bust! does this mean that more powder is being imported and the pills are being pressed here instead of actual pills being resold?

 

[Crankinit]

“This is a very significant seizure, not just for WA but for Australia and it’s saved the Australian community around $13 million in associated health and social costs.”

Hasn't saved the Australian community from jack, the supply already matches and exceeds the demand. All they've done is destroyed a couple lives for no discernable benefit. Grats I guess?

 

[Pistachio]

wow big bust! does this mean that more powder is being imported and the pills are being pressed here instead of actual pills being resold?

It is hard to say if it is more or not. At least now we know a very sizable amount of powder is being imported and pressed locally. And why not? It would seem that powdered MDMA would be easier to traffic.

 

[ilikeacid]

one of the foremost groups in the world tackling the ecstasy menace

Wow what a master of originality that journo is. Someone should send him a fucking Walkely award. I think I'll send him a nice congrats email for that shocker






FUCKTARD...

 

[hoptis]

Ben Cousins' mate in 45kg MDMA bust
May 22, 2008 02:21pm

A LONG-time friend of fallen AFL star Ben Cousins has appeared in a Sydney court over the seizure of 45kg of ecstasy in Perth, believed to be the biggest of its kind in West Australian history.

Fabian Quaid, 31, appeared in Central Local Court charged with trafficking in a commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Mr Quaid, arrested yesterday at his home in Sydney's northern beaches, was the fourth man charged over an international drug syndicate.

The former taekwondo expert is an old friend of former West Coast star Cousins.

Cousins reportedly laid low at Quaid's Manly apartment following an alleged cocaine binge in Los Angeles last year that landed him in an LA hospital.

On Monday, police arrested three members of the alleged drug ring in Perth, after last month seizing the 45kg of MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) from a house in the suburb of Lockridge.

The MDMA powder had been replaced with another substance without the alleged drug syndicate members' knowledge.

It could have been used to make at least 150,000 ecstasy pills worth $4.7 million, Australian Federal Police estimated.

A 58-year-old Sydney man and a 31-year-old Melbourne man have been charged with importing and attempting to possess a commercial quantity of MDMA.

A 39-year-old man from Queensland has been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of MDMA.

The three appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday and were remanded in custody.

In a brief hearing today, Mr Quaid did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.

He was remanded in custody until June 6 when he will reappear via videolink.

News.com.au

 

[PsiloSubNaut]

Sad for the pill market but then again who knows what they'd cut it with or if the only active ingredient in the pressed pills would have been MDMA.

They should have conducted their business more professionally.

Too late now...

On another note, why do they have to bring Ben Cousins up?

They wouldn't bring up his name if there was an article about one of his nice successfull goody two shoes mates doing something right.

Fucking media

 

[lunchbox08]

Sad for the pill market but then again who knows what they'd cut it with or if the only active ingredient in the pressed pills would have been MDMA.

They should have conducted their business more professionally.

Too late now...

On another note, why do they have to bring Ben Cousins up?

They wouldn't bring up his name if there was an article about one of his nice successfull goody two shoes mates doing something right.

Fucking media

I dont think it will cause too much of a problem, i live in a suburb near blair athhol, where all those weed houses were, and getting marijuana wasnt a problem just after and awhile after the raids. If ben cousins friends supplied you with a few thousand you might be in trouble but i doubt the end user will face any problems.

The public wants lemonade, if kirks dont supply it schweppes will.

As for your comment about the media, definately! If ben's mate john smith donated 5 grand to some charity he'd still be john smith, not a mate of ben cousins. Its rather silly

 

[flipthecandy]

realistically, what is the standard dose of mdma in the average pill?

 

[madmick19]

you might be asking what the standard weight is rather than the dose if you do the math they believe that the weight of each pill will be .3 of a gram-

thats dividing the amount reported to be seized and the amount of pills they expect, there was no mention if it was cut or a pure form. but they did get a pretty good average out at $31.333333 for each tab.

better than the old days where they would pull a figure out of the proverbial

it worthwhile just leaving this to speculation in the media

 

[Sustanon]

There will always be imported powder and pills coming.

Pistachio : About 70-80% of mdma comes from the Netherlands, Canada, Poland, Russia and a few other european countries. Its easier to ship and press localy.

Flip the candy: Id say atleast 120-150mg per pill.

 

[Crankinit]

Seriously? I would have guessed much lower, 75 - 125mg for the 'average' pill.

 

[Doooofus]

Flip the candy: Id say atleast 120-150mg per pill.

Uhhh... no. Around 50-80mg more likely.

 

[Pistachio]

Pistachio : About 70-80% of mdma comes from the Netherlands, Canada, Poland, Russia and a few other european countries. Its easier to ship and press localy.

Flip the candy: Id say atleast 120-150mg per pill.

Thats what I would suspect, though I can only speculate.

I would ask how you know this or what your reasoning but those are dangerous questions that shouldn't really be answered unless you are sure it won't start any trouble.


As for the amount of MDMA in each pill, I would be going anywhere from insignificant amounts of MDMA all the way to 160mg or so. A centre of maybe 60-80 I would say. This is subjective based on experience of course.

I would say the really weak stuff is a result of pressing and repressing. Pill press' aren't hard to get and a low level dealer would be pretty willing to crush and repress weaker pills.

 

[Biscuit]

Doofus is bang on the mark - 50mg to 80mg of MDMA per pill in the current climate as it has existed for the last 1 to 2 years. Some these days are as low as 20mg, which is not even threshold. The vast majority are MDMA only.

Anything over 100mg would be a fantastic pill in the current climate.

100mg plus pills seem to be relatively uncommon these days and of the hundreds of results (I'd estimate 200 to 300 but it would be a stab in the dark) in the last 8 years of which a person i know is aware of, >150mg has been seen maybe a handful of times, and not for many years. Of course that is nowhere near all the pills that have gone through the region over that time, but it provides a useful guide.


What is interesting about the police comments following this bust is that they have WAY undershot the mark as to the quantity of tablets this amount of powder would produce. The line in the article refers to at least 150,000 pills, but likely far more when "cut with other agents". The implication in that line is that the pill pressers were likely going to make some sort of drug cocktail, with the MDMA being only one of the ingredients. Crap.

Of course the powder was always going to be cut with other "agents", those being inert binders in order to make the tablets. These individuals went to great trouble to import what one would assume is high quality MDMA powder. That fact, together with the undeniable fact that most "ecstasy" pills are MDMA only, means that you can be fairly certain no addition of other psychoactive agents was going to occur. Simply because it is unnecessary.

Assuming 90% pure MDMA powder, this quantity would have produced 405,000 tablets at 100mg MDMA/pill or 810,000 tablets at 50mg MDMA/pill. It is a significant seizure.