Grow Bust

[dsyfer]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/12/1202760301412.html

 

 

Police weed out $1m drug house

 

Dylan Welch

February 13, 2008

 

As gardens go, this is not what the occupant of this Liverpool house wanted to see - over $1 million worth of marijuana plants stacked neatly on his front lawn by police.

 

Following an anonymous tip, Liverpool officers raided the house in Medley Avenue at 8am yesterday, arresting a 39-year-old man and discovering large marijuana plants growing in every room of the house.

 

"The people that live in the street have taken great interest in it, of course," Inspector Paul Kitley, of Liverpool police, said of the cannabis plants stacked in rows on the front lawn.

 

The bust - 355 plants in total which police value at $1.5 million - was one of the biggest Inspector Kitley had seen in such a built-up area, he said.

 

A person had phoned a constable at Liverpool police station last night and said there was something suspicious about the house. "The constable's done a bit of legwork and gone around last night and decided there was something there, because he could hear the whirring of the exhaust fans for the plants," Inspector Kitley said.

 

He informed his superiors and the house was raided this morning.

 

Now Inspector Kitley and Liverpool police want to express their thanks to the anonymous person who provided the information.

 

The Police Minister, David Campbell, got in on the act, expressed his thanks to the informant.

 

"A million dollars' worth of drugs that could have been sold to our kids is now off the streets as a result of an anonymous tip-off," he said. "I'd like to formally thank that person for coming forward and encourage others to do the same."

 

Inspector Kitley said the haul would be taken to a secure evidence room before being burnt in about a week.

 

The arrested man was taken to Liverpool police station and was last night charged with the cultivation of the illegal crop.

 

He spent the night in jail and is due to appear before Liverpool local court today.

Edited February 13, 2008 by dsyfer

[Frazz]

Thats too big a job for Jim's mowing ... hey but fuck the noisy fan ehh ..

 

[Ozzy420]

Man that is a shit load of pot.

 

It still gets me how they put such a high price on the stuff when its prob worth half that...

[Rocker]

I thought the plants looked really healthy, it's a bloody shame.

 

Stuff the dobber too, nosey prick.

 

I'm sick of reading about all the busts going on.

I hope the cops are only getting the usual 10%.

[Al B. Fuct]

I think there's more to this story than a simple anonymous tip from a neighbour.

 

There's certainly more to getting a search warrant signed off by a judge than an anon tip and some fan noise. The cops have to have observed 'drug activity' before a judge will sign off on a warrant to search a premises.

 

If the cops got a warrant on fan noise alone, the grower might walk if he 1) has a good lawyer and 2) kept his bloody mouth shut until he had counsel at hand.

 

The 'anon tip' excuse given to the press is a typical cop lie. They definitely had more info than they're admitting to the SMH.

[creature of the forest]

But if it wasn't then it shows we have to be very careful.

And it shows they are willing to check out anonymous tipoffs, not just file them until something further comes up corroborating it.

 

Didn't take them long to raid the place either. They got onto it straight away.

 

The asshole who used to live next door to me dobbed me in but the cops didn't raid me.

I overheard him making a vexatious noise complaint once when I was playing some music. I also heard him say that I had a marijuana plant in the backyard.

The cops came about the false noise complaint but they didn't say anything about a marijuana plant.

There wasn't one there at the time anyway but I used to have one there in a pot; I used to put it inside at night and carry it into the backyard the next morning for it's daily dose of sun.

He probably saw me doing that.

[Frazz]

I think there's more to this story than a simple anonymous tip from a neighbour.

 

There's certainly more to getting a search warrant signed off by a judge than an anon tip and some fan noise. The cops have to have observed 'drug activity' before a judge will sign off on a warrant to search a premises.

 

If the cops got a warrant on fan noise alone, the grower might walk if he 1) has a good lawyer and 2) kept his bloody mouth shut until he had counsel at hand.

 

The 'anon tip' excuse given to the press is a typical cop lie. They definitely had more info than they're admitting to the SMH.

 

Well i was under the understanding that in some states cops in Aust. are given half a dozen 'General Search Warrants' every few months already signed by a magistrate, then the senior detective / inspector just have to fill out the names and addresses details of the poor bastard they want to bust otherwise they would be pulling magistartes out out at all hours just to sign warrants, besides they only need reasonable suspicion of crimminal activity not hard evidence, its not like the States here when it comes to warrants Al B ...

but i could be wrong as i often am ..

 

[Zaknefain]

I like how they always talk about the children being safe. YAH YOU FUCKING TOOK AWAY OUR POT NOW YOUR FUCKING KIDS CAN GO DO FUCKING METH AND SHIT AND CRACK AND COKE AND E YOU STUPID MOTHER FUCKING CUNTS

[Frazz]

Goodness gracious ! .. maybe ya need to sit down an have 3-4 cones Zak

 

hehe

[Al B. Fuct]

Well i was under the understanding that in some states cops in Aust. are given half a dozen 'General Search Warrants' every few months already signed by a magistrate, then the senior detective / inspector just have to fill out the names and addresses details of the poor bastard they want to bust otherwise they would be pulling magistartes out out at all hours just to sign warrants, besides they only need reasonable suspicion of crimminal activity not hard evidence, its not like the States here when it comes to warrants Al B ...

but i could be wrong as i often am ..

 

 

Fraz, I'm quite aware of where I am and the differences between the two. 'Reasonable suspicion' and 'probable cause' are one and the same, though.

 

'General search warrants,' issued blindly and before the fact, would fully defeat the purpose of search warrants, which is to enforce judicial supervision of the police- even in Australia.

 

It is common for judges to be woken in the middle of the night to sign warrants, but normally only in situations where there is a strong possibility evidence may be destroyed before police can seize it. A suspected grow op is highly likely to be there when the judge is not asleep. If a judge were asked to sign a warrant on a suspected grow op in the middle of the night, I'll show you one pissed off judge who won't be so cooperative with the cops next time (if indeed s/he is cooperative this time).

 

Without going into a lot more detail than needed, I maintain that no judge is going to sign a warrant on the basis of an anon tip and fan noise. Anon tips are usually malicious, almost always false and it is legal to run fans in your house. The cops need to spot drug activity (or stronger evidence of it than hearsay, like a seed packet addressed to the target or buds seized from a person who says they got it at the suspected domicile) at the premises to get a warrant. Anon tips are good enough for a 'knock-n-talk' but not generally good enough to justify barging through the front door with a warrant.