Crackdown on backyard drug crop suppliers

[Tom]

POLICE have launched a crackdown on drug gangs setting up hydroponic cannabis-growing operations across Melbourne and nearby farming areas.

The move comes as Prime Minister John Howard urges states to tackle cannabis abuse as part of Australia's new mental-health strategy.

At the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra on Friday, Mr Howard said a generation of Australians had been too passive about illicit drug use, particularly marijuana and amphetamines.

The latest raids, on Thursday, resulted in seven arrests at hydroponics shops in Melton and Werribee, houses across the western and northern suburbs and a farm near Bacchus Marsh. Three men appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

A 50-year-old man was remanded in custody charged with cultivating and trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis after 102 plants were found growing hydroponically at the farm.

A 42-year-old man arrested at the Melton shop was released on bail after being charged with trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. Police said they seized half a kilogram of cannabis, worth $3000, about 100 grams of cocaine ($7500) and 50 ecstasy tablets ($1500) from the shop.

A 24-year-old man was bailed on a charge of trafficking ecstasy and four other men will be charged on summons with trafficking ecstasy.

The raids, led by Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Kelly, were the culmination of a six-month operation by the cannabis unit of the Major Drug Investigation Division. He said there would be more arrests in the next couple of weeks.

Senior Sergeant Kelly believes the multi-million-dollar industry is increasingly being run by Asian crime gangs who are turning away from heroin because cannabis is more lucrative. Hydroponic cannabis is said to be up to seven times more potent than marijuana grown outdoors, is easier and quicker to grow, and sells for double the price.

Senior Sergeant Kelly said Asian drug gangs in Melbourne had stepped up their involvement in crop houses in the past two years.

"It appears they have crossed over from the heroin trade into the cannabis trade as well as the ecstasy market," he said. "They've identified there's a big market of people out there who will buy this type of cannabis."

He said police had been working hard to shut down the crop houses and catch the ringleaders.

They have arrested 51 people in the past year, charging 28 with cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis — a charge that has a maximum 15-year jail term.

Police seized 2086 plants in 2005 and about 130 kilograms of cannabis head, valued at more than $6 million.

Senior Sergeant Kelly said the crop houses had become a growth industry attracting offenders of all ages. Recent arrests included an 18-year-old and an 83-year-old.

The older man was allegedly caught with 143 cannabis plants and a sawn-off double barrel shotgun on his semi-rural property on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. He and his de facto wife, aged in her 70s, will be charged by summons with cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis and face significant jail terms if convicted.

Senior Sergeant Kelly said raids in November last year — part of Operation Tabby — in Melton, Bacchus Marsh, Deer Park, Taylors Hill and Mount Wallace, had resulted in 10 arrests.

"Houses are set up in such a way to give them a lived-in look so the neighbour or someone walking past won't think there's anything suspicious going on," he said.

"What they do is box in windows from the inside or cover them with black plastic so no light escapes from the blinds in the middle of the night."

Gangs often employed people to house-sit the drugs.

"Having a person sit in the house is important because it means there's a car in the driveway, the mail's being brought in, the bins are being put out … it's all done to give the appearance that everything's normal."

Police said the problem appeared to be mainly in the western suburbs, particularly Sunshine and St Albans.

A hydroponic drug crop was found by police called to a house fire in Keilor Downs on January 16. More than 100 cannabis plants filled the upstairs rooms of the house.

 

■Anyone with information on crop houses should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

 

Author: Mark Russell, Paul Heinrichs

Date: February 12, 2006

Source: The Age

Copyright: © 2006. The Age Company Ltd.

 

 

 

A 42-year-old man arrested at the Melton shop was released on bail after being charged with trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. Police said they seized half a kilogram of cannabis, worth $3000, about 100 grams of cocaine ($7500) and 50 ecstasy tablets ($1500) from the shop.

What a dickhead.

 

[Aquaponix]

There's a quote to use

 

"Australia's new mental-health strategy".

 

ABOUT TIME!!!

 

 

I feel for my brothers across the Tasman. Your Govt is making a concerted dickhead out of itself and the conservatives are gaining footholds.

 

Beware the conservative, worst fuckers of the lot. They disguise their pious hatred of fun with biblical quotes and unfucked angry women will channel ridiculous amounts of unsated energy into putting what they will never understand behind bars.

 

How do you educate a generation of teenagers as to the truth on MJ without then bloody trying it til they're 21!??

 

Howard needs to spend time at St Vincents in Kings Cross. I've had the pleasure years ago. There's one mad pothead i can think of. The rest of the place is full of smack (free heroin anyone) prescription heads and alcoholics.

 

An absolute pit filled with societies approved drug takers.

 

What is it they gain from keeping weed illegal, therein lies the key.

 

Free and easy search? A means to suspect anyone they want to turn over? Is it easy arrests to justify their numbers?

 

The Govt level, what's the payoff, there's always a payoff, what is it?

[dsyfer]

A 42-year-old man arrested at the Melton shop was released on bail after being charged with trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. Police said they seized half a kilogram of cannabis, worth $3000, about 100 grams of cocaine ($7500) and 50 ecstasy tablets ($1500) from the shop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Has to be the dumbest guy in Victoria ::

 

83-year-old.

The older man was allegedly caught with 143 cannabis plants and a sawn-off double barrel shotgun on his semi-rural property on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. He and his de facto wife, aged in her 70s, will be charged by summons with cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis and face significant jail terms if convicted.

Will this be the first life sentace for cannabis?

That will certainly show him, probably only doing because they can't afford to pay rates

and bills, due to the way this government treats our older people. :angry:

[SukonmiSkunk]

yeah, howard needs a bullit,

didnt I read a week or so ago, and indepentant study showed that the increase of mental health or schizophrenia (is that right) due to Marijuana only increased by 1%...so what the fuck is the issue...so the government will spend taxpayers dollars addressing an issue that doesnt even excist......yay. And in the meen time slander us pot smokers..... :smoke

 

what fucks me off..is when a wanker is smoking ciggies like a fuckin train, stinkin up my air, and telling me I shouldnt smoke pot....

 

what about all the health issues accosiated with.... Ciggies...for passive smokers too...and alcohol.....

 

fucking christ...kids at the age of ten and under smoke ciggies and drink alcohol....and im 35 fuckin years old...and I cant make the choice based on scientific evidence to smoke pot and feel safe....WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with this world....I need a cone...... F U C K

[dsyfer]

yeah, howard needs a bullit, 

didnt I read a week or so ago, and indepentant study showed that the increase of mental health or schizophrenia (is that right) due to Marijuana only increased by 1%...so what the fuck is the issue...so the government will spend taxpayers dollars addressing an issue that doesnt even excist......yay. And in the meen time slander us pot smokers.....  :smoke

 

what fucks me off..is when a wanker is smoking ciggies like a fuckin train, stinkin up my air, and telling me I shouldnt smoke pot....

 

what about all the health issues accosiated with.... Ciggies...for passive smokers too...and alcohol.....

 

fucking christ...kids at the age of ten and under smoke ciggies and drink alcohol....and im 35 fuckin years old...and I cant make the choice based on scientific evidence to smoke pot and feel safe....WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with this world....I need a cone...... F U C K 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is so frustrating isn't it Sukonmi, to see the hypocracy the goes on with tax dollar making drugs :angry: or pharmaceutical chemical cocktails.

 

You know what, rather than spending all this money on anti-cannabis shit, just give us an island somewhere, where we can grow what we want (smoke & food) and then just leave us the fuck alone.

[Aquaponix]

I'm in on the island

 

Organic sustainable farming all the way

 

Self sufficiency needs a large initial outlay (land tools equipment buildings) but with the know how I have with building gardening orchards aquaponics and bio-digestors we only need a farmer and anywhere you could legally do it utopia is merely a cash figure away.

 

There are so many good technologies and old ways that work miracles for profit sheets and the ecology.

 

Hows free power all you can eat drink and smoke sound.

 

But I'm a dumb stoner, probably schizophrenic, and should be locked up because I grow my own MJ. :scratchin

[SukonmiSkunk]

its even more frustrating, when ya see dickheads beleiving the bullshit that goes out with out even researching the issue, to make up thier own mind..people are no better than sheep, its really sad....

 

from The Living End........... WAKE UP .............

 

and as for an Island..well we have already got one, lets kick the others off..

 

theres absolutely NO reason for MJ to be Illegal and all the government does from making it Illegal is hold back a billion$ industry which would create thousands of jobs..most probably for a lot of pot smokers who cant get jobs...becuase they smoke pot....myself included....

 

And as for the billions that get spent each year on incriminating innocent Australians could most certainly be spent better in our health and education system.......

 

heres what tax dollars gets spent on.....

 

a few years ago I got busted...bad... and had to go to court...trial by jury... it went on for almost two years...my Barrister, who was hired by my lawyer, at a combined $850per hour and $3500 per day in court, which was paid for by legal aid, got all the evidence thrown out of court on a technicallity, :: , 30 mins b4 the jury was called.

 

I received a $44 fine and a 2 1/2 year suspended sentence for possesion of cannibus.....

Thank FUCK for legal aid :thumbsup

[WantDaChronic]

A 42-year-old man arrested at the Melton shop was released on bail after being charged with trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. Police said they seized half a kilogram of cannabis, worth $3000, about 100 grams of cocaine ($7500) and 50 ecstasy tablets ($1500) from the shop.

 

some people can be so retarded, like even if you sell all those drugs, why in the fuck would you take them to work?

[naturalmystic]

Shops are good places to sell drugs what are you talking about , customers walking in and out dosnt look sus and basically this guys been dobbed in so his biggest mistake was greed . Why is he stupid? maybe its his hunger for money that makes him stupid . You know what the governemnt wants?? they want us to be on there fucked up drugs, pills etc heroins kool, smoke yaself to death and youll be ok and be a piss drinking wife bashing redkneck even better , plus youll be contributing to the economy . We need a pot state , then wel see how many loonies are on which side of the fucking fence . We dont need to keep repeating the injustices and hypocracies us smokers grow up with that it becomes second nature kinda like evrything else thats fucked in the world these politicians are the ones that need psycotherapy, but what do ya do ? Its another politician shitting on a growing pile of crap that we carry around . We dont need to convince ourselves that this or thats not right we fucking know it to well , what we need to do is grow so much pot that these stupid fucks cant keep up with it . Start ringing police stations and giving them false addresses to bust , maybe a good spanner make sure the people are real straight too .Flood the networks create havoc .

[New Holland]

I"d like to know what sentances they got for there 100+ plants?