Policeman Who Admitted Smoking Cannabis

[Oz]

By Don Farmer

 

A former policeman who last night admitted on national television that he had smoked cannabis during the time he was an undercover cop was a Wairarapa detective.

 

Greg O’Connor, who is now head of the Police Association, was stationed in Masterton as a Detective Sergeant in the late 1980s and 1990s. He came here on promotion from Wellington when his undercover work had finished, and was involved in high-profile cases like the Martinborough murder of Ian Silby and subsequent arrest of Michael Busch and the arson of police houses and property.

 

On television Mr O’Connor was named by other former policemen seeking compensation for what they had to endure while part of the New Zealand undercover drugs programme. They allege illegal drug use and supply, institutionalised perjury, unfair dismissal and denial of health, welfare and employment opportunities.

 

On Holmes on TV1 last night the men and women involved named Mr O’Connor as a high-profile officer who had smoked cannabis. Holmes broadcast photographs that allegedly showed Mr O’Connor rolling and smoking a marijuana joint for recreational use. The other former officers claimed Mr O’Connor had declined to co-operate with an internal police investigation into his actions.

 

On screen Mr O’Connor said he has admitted in court that he used drugs while working undercover and hadn’t taken part in the internal investigation on legal advice. He said the release of the photographs showing him smoking marijuana had endangered his safety, as a lot of people were arrested as a result of his work. He said the police association continued to support the officers in their fight for recognition and had spent $1 million supporting their case.

 

Luther Toloa, Mr O’Connor’s former boss in Masterton, came to the former detective sergeant’s defence today. Mr Toloa said “admissions, or whatever” by Mr O’Connor had to be seen in context. He said it was not a matter of Mr O’Connor’s credibility but a recognition that he had to protect himself while on undercover work. “There’s no way he could have sat in a room amongst a group of dealers and users and said I don’t smoke the stuff. “You would be taken out the back and interrogated in all sorts of ways.”

 

Mr Toloa said Greg O’Connor had been a good policeman who did excellent work in Wairarapa. He had been popular in the community “and the only pakeha member of the Pioneer rugby team.” “He fitted in well … we still keep in touch.”

 

Source: Wairarapa News

[Rottweilerpunk]

hell if i where a cop, i would smoke all the confiscated evidence well accept all the the meth and crack and all that horrible crap.....i'd just turn that in