Gangs pay as cops destroy crops

[OZ Stoners]

A POLICE crackdown on cannabis crops has cost "organised, sophisticated" criminal groups nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

View the full article

 

Gangs pay high price as police destroy marijuana crops

• Simon Black
• The Daily Telegraph
• April 06, 2013 12:00AM

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2013/04/05/1226613/593009-police-cannabis.jpg

NSW Police officers from strike force Hyperion remove illegal cannabis crops near Bellingen on the NSW mid north coast / Pic: Nathan Edwards Source: The Daily Telegraph

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2013/04/05/1226613/590884-police-cannabis.jpg

NSW Police officers from strike force Hyperion remove illegal cannabis crops near Bellingen on the NSW mid north coast / Pic: Nathan Edwards Source: The Daily Telegraph

A POLICE crackdown on cannabis crops has cost "organised, sophisticated" criminal groups nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Officers from the drug squad, helicopter wing and dog squad yesterday joined with regional officers trekking down fire trails and through gullies, cutting their way through rugged thickets of lantana and blackberry and into the bright sunlight of bush-based marijuana plantations.

Growers have cleared bush canopies to allow plants access to sunlight, fenced off growing areas with chicken wire and cyclone fencing, set up homemade dams feeding into drip pipe irrigation set-ups and sprinkled fertiliser liberally around their crops.

"A lot of work has gone into this," drug squad commander Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said.

"If they put that amount of work into a proper job they'd make a lot of money."

 

MORE than than 6800 marijuana plants worth around $25 million were seized as police finished their annual cannabis eradication program.

Supt Bingham said the criminals behind the drug plantations were "highly sophisticated" - making use of advanced horticultural processes to refine their plants.

"They don't just throw some seeds and cut into bush. It's bloody hard work for them. But we're hard workers too," he said.

It is hard work for officers. Police trek and drive for hours to pull up plants in the harsh sunlight. Plants are stacked up and carried out, sometimes by 4WD, sometimes by helicopter, and taken back to the police command post at the "Green Base" - a makeshift set-up on an old Aussie Rules oval near Bellingen.

"We're not after the pot smoking hippie with a couple of plants for personal use," drug squad Supt Bingham said.

"We're after the organised criminal who is making money from these crops."

He said the quality and quantity of the plants demonstrated the growers were getting better at their trade.

"We're confiscating flowering heads that are dripping with resin," he said.

"The flowering bud, which they call the head, of some of these plants are 30cm long and 40cm round. These people know what they are doing."

While the crop eradications were costing growers big bucks, police said in many cases the criminals were long gone by the time police began the clearing operations.

POLICE MARIJUANA RAIDS:

27/11/11 - 2/12/11: Manning Great Lakes LAC (Coopernock, Bulga, Elands, Wallis Lake, Wooton, Coolongolook, Old Bar, Taree, Wang Wauk and Tuncurry) - $1.93 million (965 plants) in cannabis seized

15/01/12 - 20/01/12: Richmond LAC (Kippenduff, Rappville, Clearfield, Busby Flat, Mummulgum, Bulldog, Drake, Nimbin, Blue Knob, Kyogle and Tabulam) - $7.5 million (3,374 plants) in cannabis seized

26/02/12 - 01/03/12: Coffs / Clarence LAC (Coffs Harbour hinterland) - $6.6 million (3,321 plants) in cannabis seized

11/03/12 - 16/03/12: Mid North Coast LAC (regional sites near Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Macksville etc) - $4.3 million (2,154 plants) in cannabis seized

18/11/12 - 23/11/12: New England LAC (Diehard, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Carrai, Glen Elgin) - $6.9 million (3,450 plants) in cannabis seized

09/12/12 - 14/12/12: Coffs/Clarence LAC (Bellingen, Tyringham, Nymboida, Copmanhurst, Cangai, Coutts Crossing, Dorrigo, Brushgrove) - $4 million (2,300 plants) in cannabis seized

13/01/13 - 18/01/13: Mid North Coast LAC (Bowraville, Wauchope, Port Macquarie, Kendall) - $5.8 million (2,914 plants) in cannabis seized

17/02/13 - 22/02/13: Tweed/Byron LAC (Mullumbimby, Burringbar, Chillingham, Glengarrie, Cudgera Creek) - $3.6 million (1,816 plants) in cannabis seized

03/03/13 - 08/03/13: Richmond LAC (Boorabee, Gradys Creek, Nimbin, Rapville, Tabulam) - $4.2 million (2,099 plants) in cannabis seized
02/04/13 - 04/04/13: Coffs / Clarence LAC (Bellingen, Glenreagh, Tyringham) - $300,000 (150 plants) in cannabis seized to date.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Your My Hero Nick Bunghole........   , The so called 'organized crime' are laughing at you, cause all ya getting is peoples grows who don't deserve to lose them.

REAL organized crime realized long ago, theres more money in Meth and Heroin................ and its about time you woke up to it too..........

 

Waste of time , resources and funding that you just don't have..............no wonder our streets arent safe......you all off playing Hero in the bush........Piss orf........

 

No Matter how much you find, there will ALWAYS be Cannabis you can't find............ your not even putting a dint in a Milo can.......... So stop pretending ya making a difference.

 

Even ya officer is staring at it like he'd love some Kingsize Rizla's right now.........

 

Peace. Nibbler.

[Sir PsychoHashy]

It's all PR and bollocks.  As we all know the commercial market is flooded with indoor cultivated buds, and at least amongst the younger generation that is the product they want, it is therefore driving the market, so if they're serious about criminal gang growers why do I hardly ever hear of them busting those operations?  Employing basic techniques in known outdoor growing areas is guaranteed to produce results for the coppers, and the hierarchy know it, so every year we waste millions of taxpayer dollars on this shit so the top brass can say "look at how good we are, and how naughty those pot heads are".  And whilst there are no doubt some large scale operations amongst it, for the most part it aint.  A lot of the commercial stuff is also small scale by heroin addicts to support their habits, rather this than petty crime or armed robbery etc.

Edited April 5, 2013 by drdave69au

[pisspotgrower]

Sad thing is poeple believe what they read, while the papers, police and tvs keep talking about weed associated with organised crime, crimanl groups and violence i cant see anything ever changing.

[Naycha]

"A lot of work has gone into this," drug squad commander Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said.

"If they put that amount of work into a proper job they'd make a lot of money."

 

I'd love to see from Nick Bingham a list of available jobs in the Bellingen and surrounding areas, they simply don't exist. It's so weak using arguments like that.

 

Naycha

[Vape]

"If they put that amount of work into a proper job they'd make a lot of money."

 

Well put Nay, there aint no 'proper' jobs, that pay 1/4 million $ in bellingen .. what a stupid thing to say..  

 

really Prohibition just gives the cops a income... im not suprised they dont want to decriminalize it.. there would be cops out of work..  no work for the prison guards, or the lawyers..   prohibition is a money making idea nothing more.. they still sell alcohol and cigerettes, so its not about harm, or risk.. its about money!

 

and as for organized crime???... they must be kidding themselves..  the police is run by organized crime imo. 

 

i saw all the rats leave the sinking ship last week, with many top level resignations.   

[louise]

The criminals behind the drug plantations were "highly sophisticated" - making use of advanced horticultural processes to refine their plants.

 

Spin it Nick, spin it loudly and in quotable sound bites. The media love you.

 

organised, sophisticated

 

And they have even mashed a pair of quotes to get the buzzwords up together.

Edited April 6, 2013 by louise

[Faith]

Spin it Nick, spin it loudly and in quotable sound bites. The media love you.

 

 

And they have even mashed a pair of quotes to get the buzzwords up together.

Mass print and vid media has no credibilty left preying on naive innocents for their gain imo

[tmer]

25million per 6800 plants comes down to ~3700 per plant! is that a reasonable estimate?

[Cyclops]

tmer, that equates to about 12oz per plant, outdoors each plant would be lucky to yield 4 to 6oz. Still much closer to the 5k usually quoted per plant.

 

Where did the headline " cost "organised, sophisticated" criminal groups nearly a quarter of a billion dollars" come from ????

 

I have a lot to do with that area and have never come across anything like organised sophisticated criminal groups or gangs growing dope.

Just normal everday dads and mums growing a few plants for themselves and friends. The main photo with the cop in it would be the extent of the patch, a few plants, not hundreds as it's intended to portray.

 

Love this   >>>It is hard work for officers. Police trek and drive for hours to pull up plants in the harsh sunlight. Plants are stacked up and carried out, sometimes by 4WD, sometimes by helicopter<<<

poor buggers ..... it's actually a jaunt for them, a prized perk, they come up from Sydney for a couple of weeks and get paid penalty rates for the whole time plus free food and accommodation.