Cannabis seized in house raid

[Tom]

POLICE have seized cannabis worth almost $400,000 in a house raid in Sydney's south west.

 

Officers searched the home on Gemalla Street, Fairfield, about 11.15am (AEST) yesterday and found 197 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $394,000, police said.

 

A 50-year-old woman was charged with cultivating a prohibited plant, possessing a prohibited drug and stealing electricity.

 

The woman who was refused bail was due to appear in Fairfield Local Court today.

 

The latest raid followed three others on Tuesday.

 

The total drug haul was estimated to be worth almost $900,000.

 

Author:The Daily Telegraph

Date:October 27, 2005

Source:The Daily Telegraph

Copyright:2005 Nationwide News

 

197 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $394,000, police said

$2000 per plant, don't the stupid cops realise that their constant overestimating the value of these crops is just encouraging more people to try their hands at commercial growing?

and stealing electricity

A much more realistic valuation of the crop would be around $180,000 to $200,000, the power bill would probably be around a couple of grand, it would be much smarter just to pay the bill and eliminate one major way of getting busted.

 

[Ozzy420]

Shit all these busts that are going on in Fairfield are very close to auntys place i think i will get onto her as she seems to know all the goings on in her lil area and see if she knows anything more...

[Mushaman]

there's been a few busts of late in the area .. ?all stealing elec? sounds like its probably a gang operation ... rented houses, stolen elec .. with 'mules' living in the houses and tending things on behalf of the gang ... think i read something about this type of large scale organisation somewhere ... not too much in one place ... 10 houses all with 200 plants ... lots of sore pruning hands

 

stealing electricity seems such a stupid thing to do ... specially when there is so much money involved - I reckon these couples that are found sitting on it all don't even know the powers not paid for ... its cheap ass greedy gangs that couldn't give a crap if these people go to jail ... plenty more where they came from if the house is busted ... maybe they're just slow learners but I suspect that there are prob hundreds of houses out there just in Sydney operated by quite organised gangs/tiads/mafia/etc etc ... they get new immmigrants ... set them up in a 'situation' maybe they live there free or even earn a little salary .... they scare the crap outta them .. threats of death and dismemberment if they'rat' on the gang .. and away you go ... just hit copy as many times as you feel like it ... go round yer houses and collect the crop every 55 days or so .....

 

[dsyfer]

I think you probably hit the nail on the head there Mushaman, I believe that is the reason the South Aussie laws got changed from 10 plants down to 1, apparently organised gangs would have a network of houses, using new arrivals that needed the money. The one major problem is if one gets busted, the cops would offer a very good deal to rat out all the other grow locations, this could be what is happening in Sydney at the moment?

 

As for the electricity stealing, people think that a large spike in electricity use is more risky than stealing it, however I'm sure that electricity companies know how many kilowatts go into a certain grid, all they have to do is add up all the metre readings to know that more juice is going into an area than is being paid for.

 

I would say they would rather have paying customers, so it would probably be very rare that someone would sit down and compare readings over a number of years to see any spikes. Just my 2cents.

[Mushaman]

i agree dude ..I'm sure that there is a spike on my meter .. one that would be real easy to detect ... every bloody 12 hours ... they may not immediately suspect a grow .. but if they wanted, they could easily identify that at the same time every day (more or less... sez he who can't work his timers)

2000-3000 extra watts come on ... or suddenly stop ... I know there's all sorts of reasons this could be .. and I really dont stress over that (having received my first power bill since beginning) but they could be a lot more cunning I reckon .. so that proves they just wanna sell power to paying customers .... capatileest peags!

[Gazza2001au]

i think the chopper plays a big part of this 15mins ago they flew over head pretty low and very slow all of a sudden they get a good 50-100m away than hang a right off they go back towards the airport :scratchin anyone know how high they need to be to get a good infared reading?

[WantDaChronic]

seriously, electric companies dont care how much power you use as long as you pay for it.....hell they dont care if you get an electrician to come around and install 30amp wall sockets so you can run multiple HIDs, just so long as you pay your bill

 

what i just typed was told to me by a guy at a dealers house about 2 or so weeks back who works at energy australia....he also said stealing power is deadset the stupidest thing you can do if your growing because they'll notice the difference within a month or 2 and when that happens it will only take a week or 2 to find out which house its coming from, how much power is being used and when + they can even locate the difference down to individual rooms in that house once they have located the house and found out the information they desire, they hand that information over to the police and basically say go get 'em :thumbdown

 

once the police have been informed you are stealing power, they'll either come around and watch the house to see if your doing anything suspect OR they'll just type up the arrest warrent and come out to get you....either way, you are fucked regardless, more so if you get caught selling, but none the less, you have gotta be fucked in the head to think you can constantly steal from a company without them wanting to put a stop it it

 

i think the chopper plays a big part of this 15mins ago they flew over head pretty low and very slow all of a sudden they get a good 50-100m away than hang a right off they go back towards the airport scratchchin.gif anyone know how high they need to be to get a good infared reading?

 

if you ever get the chance to see a IR photo of a house, the whole damn thing glows off its nut to get a decent reading, the police would have to be able to zoom into individual rooms and then determine the source of heat....during summer, that can be a bit of an issue because who in their right mind has a heater or any source of constant heat going? anyways sources of heat can be easily explained, stoves, heaters, reptile cages, etc. the list goes on for ages.....

 

I was off the belief the police needed warrents to search into your house using IR as it basically allows the police to see through walls? maybe im thinking about canada but if the police are allowed to search your home from the sky, there are a few things you can do to prevent their search yielding decent results :whistling there is this foil (like mylar) but its meant to reflect 99% of heat as well :thumbsup insulation and venting air around the house untill its cool, then extracting it outside would also work pretty well....

[dsyfer]

Best way to steal power is sneak into neighbours shed, take a really long extention cord............

[raverspec]

[Chev]

(more or less... sez he who can't work his timers)

Seconds she who also can't work her timers

Best way to steal power is sneak into neighbours shed, take a really long extention cord............

Muhahahaha :thumbsup

I know ppl who've gotten away with it for years, but I personally will stick to paying the extra for power, for all the electricity mob know I could be running 20 Aquariums or something :reallyexcited: ::

The biggest thing that'll get you busted is your mouth. Trust no-one!! As long as you got no smell, no light leaks, no noise and no-one knows....... you're laughin'.

Be smart, and a quote from dsyfer:

The first rule of fight club is , never talk about fight club (some wise words there)

:thumbsup