Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 - NSW ...

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Table 4. Miscellaneous items associated with drug supply found on drug premises Greater Metropolitan Region Southern Region Western Region State Crime Command Hydroponic equipment/apparatus (found on two premises) and a heat sealing machine. A foil pipe that police allege was used to flush drugs down the toilet. Hydroponic equipment/apparatus (found on one premises). A hydraulic press and two metal plates that related to its use and a heat sealing machine Source: COPS event narratives and search warrant documents. Hydroponic equipment, which can be used to cultivate cannabis indoors, was found on several drug premises. Although a reasonable belief that cannabis is being cultivated cannot provide a basis of a drug premises search warrant to search premises, 319 police may nonetheless be able to lay charges for cannabis related offences if cannabis and or/hydroponic equipment is found on the premises. 5.5.5.6. Items associated with drug manufacture Section 11(2)(d) includes any means or devices used in the manufacture of prohibited drugs. Almost all uses of the Drug Premises Act across the state involved premises that were suspected of involvement in drug supply, rather than drug manufacture. It was relatively rare for police to find items associated with drug manufacture on identified drug premises. Items associated with drug manufacture were found on four premises in the Greater Metropolitan Region. These items were: • a tablet/pill pressing machine • laboratory equipment/glassware (found on two premises) and • precursors (found on three premises). 320 On one premises, presumptive tests conducted by scientific officers detected the presence of pseudoephedrine in various spots throughout the premises, but police did not find laboratory equipment. 321 In this incident, police did find a solvent, which they believed was acetone, a substance commonly used in the manufacture of amphetamines, 200 loose Panadol tablets and 12.3 grams of amphetamines. 322 Police stated in the event narrative that they had statements from a number of persons that “implicate the defendant in the manufacture of amphetamines at that address”. 323 He was charged with allowing his premises to be used as drug premises, possessing a precursor with intent to manufacture prohibited drugs, and drug manufacturing. 324 In another incident, a range of drugs 325 including various types of amphetamine in both capsule and powder form were located. One of the occupants of the premises later admitted to having “taken part in the manufacture of all the amphetamine-based capsules located during the course of the search warrant”. 326 No other evidence of drug manufacturing was found on the premises when the search warrant was executed. On another occasion, police executed a drug premises search warrant on a house that they believed was being used for drug manufacture and supply. 327 When they searched the premises, they found scales, syringes, $3,805, 2.9 grams of cannabis, and 1,821 pseudoephedrine tablets. Most of the tablets were still in the packaging and chemist bag they had been bought in. Police also found “recent receipts … issued by a variety of different chemist shops” amongst the tablets. Police concluded in the event narrative that: Items that, when view in conjunction [with] the aforementioned large quantities of cash and pseudoephedrine based tablets, led police to form the view that the defendant’s premises was a drug premises, as defined by the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001, in that it was being used for the supply and/or manufacture of prohibited drugs, other than cannabis. 328 319 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 3. 320 COPS event narratives, Greater Metropolitan Region, Incidents 13, 33, 35 and 37. 321 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incident 33. 322 Ibid. 323 Ibid. 324 Ibid. 325 The drugs found on the premises included amphetamine and cannabis. COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Incident 35, 23 November 2001. 326 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incident 35. This person was charged with organising drug premises, and with various drug offences, including possession, manufacture, cultivation and supply of prohibited drugs. 327 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incident 37. 328 Ibid. 66 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
However, no other evidence of drug manufacturing was located on the premises. The occupant of the premises was charged with various offences including allowing his premises to be used as drug premises, and with possession of prohibited drugs. 329 The State Crime Command used the Act on two clandestine laboratories, and found a quantity of laboratory equipment on each premises. Items found by police included: • thermometers, funnels, plastic hoses, separating funnels, stirrer bars, laboratory glassware and a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) bottle and • numerous glass jars and glassware containing a number of different chemicals, numerous pieces of glassware and equipment associated with the manufacture of amphetamine and methylamphetamine. 330 In one other incident, documented in the chapter, “Targeting drug supply”, State Crime Command were involved in an operation that related to drug manufacture in which several premises were targeted. One of these premises was a clandestine laboratory. Charges under the Drug Premises Act were not laid in connection with the laboratory itself, but drug premises and drug manufacturing charges were laid against people on two other premises that were targeted in the operation. On one premises in the Southern Region, police found what they believed was an attempt at the manufacture of amphetamines - a brown substance caked onto the bottom of a dish - and an esky with liquid inside that police believed was the first stage in the manufacture of amphetamines. 331 However, according to the event narrative, one of the occupants told police that the substance was “merely waste from storing food in the esky over a long period.” 332 We are not aware of any incidents in which items associated with drug manufacture were found on identified drug premises in Cabramatta, the Inner Metropolitan Region, the Northern Region or the Western Region. 5.5.5.7. Clandestine laboratories During the review period, we are aware of three occasions on which the Drug Premises Act was used in relation to clandestine laboratories. Two of these related to uses of the legislation by State Crime Command. The use of the Act by State Crime Command to deal with clandestine laboratories is discussed further in the chapter “Targeting drug supply”. In another incident, in a LAC in the Greater Metropolitan Region, general duties police inadvertently located a clandestine laboratory in a garage. They had been called to a house in western Sydney one evening in connection with a domestic dispute. The officers were questioning a man in the backyard who was bleeding from injuries to his right arm. As police were speaking to the man, they looked through the broken garage window and saw a number of glass beakers, electronic scales and what appeared to be a pill press. The occupants did not allow police entry to the garage and became hostile. 333 The two police walked out to the front of the house and contacted their LAC. According to a police officer we spoke to about the incident, police did not believe that they had the power to stay on the premises. 334 While they were waiting for other officers to arrive with a search warrant, and for police from the Clandestine Laboratory Team to arrive, they saw four people enter the garage. In the event narrative, police document what happened next: A short time later police heard smashing glass and noticed a small fire in front of the garage door then heard someone jumping the rear colourbond fence. Soon after this police saw the defendant [name] and [name] walk from the vicinity of the rear garage door. At this time the inside of the garage was engulfed in flames. Firebrigade attended the location and extinguished the flames. At this time drums of chemicals including Methanol, Acetone, Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrochloric acid and distilled water were located in the garage. Police from Clandestine lab team arrived and were able to identify these chemicals as being used in the manufacture of MDMA (ecstasy). Enquiries so far indicate enough chemicals to manufacture a large commercial quantity of MDMA. 335 329 Ibid. 330 COPS event narratives, State Crime Command, Drug Premises Incidents 9 and 15. 331 COPS event narrative, Southern Region, Drug Premises Incident 2. 332 Ibid. 333 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Incident 13. 334 Personal communication, Police Officer, Greater Metropolitan Region, 7 August 2003. 335 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incident 13. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 67
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Review of the Police Powers (Drug P
Page 3 and 4:
Contents Preface ..................
Page 5 and 6:
Chapter 11. Drug move-on powers in
Page 7 and 8:
Acknowledgements This report was re
Page 9 and 10:
Part One. Background. Chapter 1. In
Page 11 and 12:
Drug offences, unlike for example,
Page 13 and 14:
elieve is in a public place with th
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2. Methodology In this chap
Page 17 and 18: 2.3.5. Health data NSP distribution
Page 19 and 20: As the table indicates, more than o
Page 21 and 22: 2.4.7. Complaints The NSW Ombudsman
Page 23 and 24: NSW Police advised us that calculat
Page 25 and 26: Another data limitation is that COP
Page 27 and 28: Chapter 3. Legislative survey This
Page 29 and 30: Once police have entered the suspec
Page 31 and 32: The table below sets out the penalt
Page 33 and 34: (c) that the nature and extent of t
Page 35 and 36: The Act contains four additional in
Page 37 and 38: A fortification removal notice is r
Page 39 and 40: For example, section 39(3) of the Q
Page 41 and 42: Part Two. Drug premises Chapter 4.
Page 43 and 44: In the police training manual on th
Page 45 and 46: Case study 2. Drug premises search
Page 47 and 48: 4.2.4. Presenting the application b
Page 49 and 50: A Crime Manager we interviewed from
Page 51 and 52: applications. In this Act, an inves
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 5. The definition of drug p
Page 55 and 56: 5.2. Recommendation That Parliament
Page 57 and 58: 5.5.2. Section 11(2)(b): fortificat
Page 59 and 60: In our chapter on Cabramatta, we di
Page 61 and 62: The woman was found guilty of allow
Page 63 and 64: 5.5.5. Means or devices for drug us
Page 65: Number of Premises Figure 7. Razor
Page 69 and 70: • magnum revolver and a 0.357 mag
Page 71 and 72: 5.5.8. Section 11(2)(g): large amou
Page 73 and 74: The magistrate noted that there wer
Page 75 and 76: In relation to the money located on
Page 77 and 78: 5.7.6. Cars as drug premises As we
Page 79 and 80: … rather than being on the edge o
Page 81 and 82: Chapter 6. The Drug Premises Act -
Page 83 and 84: • the offence of being found on,
Page 85 and 86: With reverse onus, we didn’t have
Page 87 and 88: In the following section, we will d
Page 89 and 90: Officers from the State Crime Comma
Page 91 and 92: The second reading speech, which gi
Page 93 and 94: In the granny flat, police found ca
Page 95 and 96: Table 6. Pleas entered and court ou
Page 97 and 98: The magistrate said that he had a r
Page 99 and 100: 13. Allowing use of premises as dru
Page 101 and 102: The defendant says he was not there
Page 103 and 104: Figure 13: Ages of people charged w
Page 105 and 106: Table 12. Number of charges for var
Page 107 and 108: Chapter 7. Cabramatta 7.1. Introduc
Page 109 and 110: No. of Drug Premises Figure 14: Num
Page 111 and 112: Table 13. Information about drug pr
Page 113 and 114: It should be clear that this legisl
Page 115 and 116: The unit was in disarray, with spar
Page 117 and 118:
7.5. Level of drug supply the law i
Page 119 and 120:
7.5.3 Firearms, weapons and high le
Page 121 and 122:
7.6. Charges laid under the Drug Pr
Page 123 and 124:
7.6.4. Young Asian people and drug
Page 125 and 126:
Of these 52 people, 31 people pled
Page 127 and 128:
7.8. Conclusion: Impact of the Drug
Page 129 and 130:
By way of comment, the continuing a
Page 131 and 132:
Chapter 8. Targeting drug supply Pa
Page 133 and 134:
Table 18. Drug Misuse and Trafficki
Page 135 and 136:
Low level drug suppliers are more l
Page 137 and 138:
Other forms of organisation in evid
Page 139 and 140:
Table 19. Drugs Located, State-wide
Page 141 and 142:
Table 23. Drugs located, Northern R
Page 143 and 144:
However, the submission concluded b
Page 145 and 146:
To begin with, telephone intercepts
Page 147 and 148:
The prohibited drugs that were loca
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One factor that appears to have per
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