Police to target ecstasy dealers/users
Media Conference, Winchester Police Centre
Commander Shane Connelly, Deputy Chief Police Officer, ACT
October 27, 2005
Shane Connelly: Good morning everybody and welcome to the Winchester Police Centre. I've asked you to come today to talk about a drugs campaign that we've had going for some time. We're continuing it because, as you're aware, summer's coming on and the festivities of summer and school leavers start to occur. So I want to talk to you today about this campaign that will be targeting ecstasy and MDMA, amphetamines and other drug substances, and also alcohol abuse. The campaign will be running over the summer; it will involve detectives from the Territory Investigations Group; it will also involve uniformed police officers from our City Beat Team. It's of interest that last night our detectives actually arrested a 36-year-old Braddon man. As a result of a search warrant we were able to locate in his possession MDMA, also amphetamine and cannabis, and the street value of those drugs is estimated at $10 000. He's remanded in custody to be appearing in court today.
This focus is timely with the street and music festivals starting. We have the Stonefest starting this weekend and then there'll be a number of festivals and events that will occur. But we're not just targeting festivals; these drugs are available in car parks, at bars, in clubs, in the city, in private homes and we'll be targeting the distributors of these drugs and people in possession of the drugs. It's quite clearly an offence in the ACT to possess these drugs. The fines for possession or supplying ecstasy are between $5000 and $100 000 and offenders, if convicted, could receive jail terms of between two and 25 years.
But we're not doing this just because of it being an offence; we're doing this because these drugs are unhealthy. In our research throughout Australia we've found within ecstasy tablets for example, heroin, LSD, anti-epileptics, ketamine and even rat poison. The people who produce these drugs don't care what they put in them and subsequently we have overdose deaths, we have overdoses where people are very sick, and we have drug and alcohol-induced rage and violence, which is all a result of these substances. These drugs are often misnamed party drugs. Let me make it clear: there's no party in ending up on a slab at the mortuary as a result of an overdose. There's no party in killing your friend in a car collision because of drug or alcohol-related abuse. There's no party at all in ending up at the Watch House or the Remand Centre as a result of participating in drug or alcohol-related violence. The party is life itself; the longer we live, the longer we have our friends alive, the longer that party. So, on that note I'd like to finish and go to questions.
Reporter: Is this operation targeting all drugs or is it mainly just the party drugs?
Shane Connelly: Please don't call them party drugs. It's targeting all drugs, but it's specifically looking at the drugs that would be seen in the nightclub and the festival-type scenes. We're seeing rises in amphetamine-type substances and drugs such as ecstasy so that's what we're specifically targeting; but we're also targeting all drugs. In fact, with the drug warrant we executed yesterday afternoon, you can see a wide range of drugs seized there. There was MDMA, amphetamine and cannabis.
Reporter: With the drug dealer that was remanded last night what sort of level drug dealer is that, given the spectrum of dealers in Canberra? Is that one of the top end offenders?
Shane Connelly: There are opportunist drug dealers and there are organised drug dealers, but I can't comment about that specific person because that matter will be going before the court today. But let me say: we will seize the proceeds of these crimes as we did in this case. So we're not just looking at seizing drugs at the time, we're taking assets they've gained through their crimes. So if they've gained a house whose purchase they cannot explain and can't say how it's financed, we'll seize it. We've done that in the past; we seize motor vehicles, we seize cash and other assets. So I guess it's a holistic view of investigating and prosecuting these people. And it's not just us. People from the health services are involved, people from the ambulance service are readily involved, so it's a joint effort and it's all part of the harm reduction strategies.
Reporter: Where are these drugs coming from? Are they produced locally or interstate?
Shane Connelly: Look, amphetamine type substances can be produced anywhere. You've all heard no doubt of clandestine laboratories. These laboratories are very dangerous. Our detectives are getting specific training in dismantling clandestine laboratories but the drugs can also come from interstate, while other drugs are imported from other countries, so there's a combination of local production and importation.
Reporter: Is this focus something similar to Halite or is it going to be a big focus of police or is it something more specific?
Shane Connelly: Within the Territory Investigations Group, we've got our crime targeting teams. It's not a Halite principle approach; it's really more a case of police reminding the community that this activity is going on. This activity goes on year-round, but when the market becomes more visible, as it inevitably does in the summer, we capitalise on that by targeting those criminals.
Reporter: Will you be targeting nightclubs, nightspots or pavements?
Shane Connelly: The hotspots won't just be in Civic. The hotspots will be in nightclubs, car parks, surrounds, dark alleys, houses where they are actually producing or manufacturing, motor vehicles where they're transporting; it's a real whole-of-ACT approach. But certainly you will see our Beat teams, which will be highly visible. What people won't see is our detectives who will be quite discreet and they will be out there doing their job, as will be the drug detection dogs. So we'll be using all of our resources to target this issue because it's the drug-related crime which is critical in this as well. I mean, there's a lot of violent crime that occurs as a result of this drug dealing and of alcohol abuse. We have to look at this in its entire context. It's not just drug abuse, it's better to say drug and alcohol abuse.
Reporter: You mentioned festivals, Stonefest, that sort of thing. Are we going to be seeing an increase in police presence there looking for drugs at some of the festivals?
Shane Connelly: All festivals will be looked at; some festivals will have a greater presence than others and that presence will be really targeted on our intelligence.
Reporter: In terms of searching people at nightclubs and that sort of thing, what is the procedure?
Shane Connelly: Our searches are done on the basis of search warrant powers. Those search warrants can be obtained; there are emergency search warrant powers also available under the Act or there are numerous search warrant powers whereby we swear warrants on a person, on premises, or on a motor vehicle. There are emergency powers of search warrant under the Act which have to utilise the services of a magistrate or an on-call magistrate.
Reporter: Can you make people empty their pockets?
Shane Connelly: Well we can, under certain circumstances. It depends on the circumstances of the particular incident, but certainly if we see a supply take place, we have certain powers in relation to an arrest and then as a result of those arrest powers, searches can be conducted.
Reporter: What can people do to help police?
Shane Connelly: Crime Stoppers is a great port of call; people can ring it anonymously on 1800 333 000, if they see some activity. And there out at the nightclubs, they can just talk to a Beat police officer and say "this is what we saw". It's particularly helpful if they offer a description; if a person is, for example wearing unusual clothing then that's most helpful for police looking for them. We don't want them to intervene; we want them to find a police officer and or make a call and advise us of what they've seen. That's most helpful.
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