Seven arrested for NT alcohol smuggling

[WantDaChronic]

SEVEN people have been arrested at the airport of a remote Aboriginal community for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs and alcohol into the "dry zone".

 

Four females - aged 24, 41, 44 and 54 - and three males - aged 21, 21 and 52 - were followed by police on a flight from Darwin yesterday afternoon.

 

They were arrested on Groote Eylandt where police allegedly found a combined total of 281 grams of cannabis, with an estimated value if sold by the gram in a remote community of $28,100.

 

They also located a combined total of 4,350ml of Bundaberg Rum, 2,100ml of Jim Beam, one Rum and Cola and Bourbon and Cola can and a four litre cask wine inside the luggage.

 

The Top End community voluntarily introduced alcohol restrictions two years ago.

 

Restrictions had existed previously but they were hard to police and alcohol was easily available in the mining town of Alyangula.

 

Now when people want to consume alcohol they are subject to a police check and a permit is granted through the NT Liquor Commission if they have no alcohol related offences.

 

The permit must be shown to purchase takeaway alcohol and people who have one are registered with their two local licensees.

 

Police charged two of the women and one male with possession and supply of a dangerous drug and liquor offences.

 

They were bailed to appear in the Alyangula Court on August 21.

 

The other four men and women will be summonsed to face the charges of bring liquor into a restricted area and possess liquor in a restricted area, police said.

 

Source: www.news.com.au

[godonacid]

281 grams of cannabis, with an estimated value if sold by the gram in a remote community of $28,100.

that's $100 a gram, which makes a 2.5g stick worth $250 and a bag approx $2800 although by the bag would prob be about half of that it is still extreme, if the government really wanted to help these people they would subsidise the cost of pot down to what it is in the cities and give the poor frackers a bit more money to play with, imagine trying to stay stoned when they are paying more for 2 grams than i am for an ounce, very sad state of affairs, much like when they removed the petrol a few years back, people where going up there and selling 600ml coke bottles of petrol for $50 or where trading them for sex, exploitation at its worst, i would be locking the would be trackifers up for a long time purely for their attempted act of exploitation at people who are worse off than themselves.

 

selling pot shouldn't be against the law but exploiting people should be.

[Al B. Fuct]

selling pot shouldn't be against the law but exploiting people should be.

 

Very true, but $100 a gram for buds can't be anything but 'cop price.' Might sucker a tourist (once), but I'd think the locals would know a bit better.

 

Still, prohibition being what it is, withdrawing supply can (and does) drive prices through the roof. Prohibition doesn't stop drugs being available, it just makes them more expensive.

 

Cops also insist that each cannabis plant in a seized grow op is worth $3500 per in press releases.

[bufo marinus]

They were arrested on Groote Eylandt where police allegedly found a combined total of 281 grams of cannabis, with an estimated value if sold by the gram in a remote community of $28,100

Isn't there a law against telling such BIG FUCKING LIES?

What do they think they are trying to achieve? Make the public distrust authority figures even more?

I thought jounalists were supposed to check the truthfulness of a story first? Fuckin cops can't lie straight in bed that should have been the first clue

[Al B. Fuct]

I thought jounalists were supposed to check the truthfulness of a story first?

 

Absolutely right- they should. The press should function as a fact-checker to keep govt honest, but many news ops are simply govt mouthpieces. Noise Ltd is the very worst offender for softballing govt and police press releases. If it's Murdoch, it's govt biased.

 

Disappointingly, Fairfax papers and even my beloved ABC have also been less than questioning regarding "cop price" on drug seizures. I read the riot act to the ABC and the SMH the other day about "cop pricing" and also about calling grow ops "drug labs." The govt wants the press to equivocate cannabis with hard drugs and the hard drug of the moment is methamphetamine. Meth is cooked in a facility rightly called a "lab." However, "cultivation" and "growing" are apparently not heinous enough terms for cannabis grow-ops. To call a grow-op a "drug lab" plays into the govt's new cannabis demonisation strategy- and to not query that semantic is simply poor journalism.