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

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The man was charged with allowing premises to be used as drug premises, and with manufacturing a commercial quantity of prohibited drugs. Another occupant of the premises was charged with being found on drug premises. 336 5.5.6. Section 11(2)(e): firearms and prohibited weapons Another indicia of drug premises is evidence of firearms or prohibited weapons, the possession of which is unlawful. 337 The figure below shows the number of times firearms, weapons, or ammunition were located on identified drug premises. Number of Premises Figure 9. Firearms, weapons and ammunition located on drug premises 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Greater Inner Metropolitan Metropolitan Region Region Northern Region Firearm/Weapon/Ammunition Found Firearm/Weapon/Ammunition Not Found Southern Region Western Region Regions and State Crime Command Source: COPS event narratives and search warrant documents. State Crime Command Greater Metropolitan Region Inner Metropolitan Region Northern Region Southern Region Wesstern Region State Crime Command Firearm/ Weapon/ Ammunition Not Found Firearm/ Weapon/ Ammunition Found 59 20 16 0 8 1 10 2 4 3 13 5 Ammunition and several weapons were located on three premises in the Western Region. On these premises pol ice found: • a significant quantity of .303 ammunition • two firearms and • knuckle dusters, and a length of wood in the form of a baton. 338 On one premises in the Northern Region, police found an iron bar, axes, a broken billiard cue with a handle attached, and an extendable baton. 339 Weapons were located on two premises in the Southern Region. On one drug premises, police found a sawn off shotgun and ten live shotgun shells. On another, they found a set of thumb cuffs and a set of handcuffs hanging from the ceiling. 340 A weapon of some type, or ammunition, was located on 20 premises in the Greater Metropolitan Region. Firearms were located on ten of these drug premises. On some premises, police located ammunition but no firearms, or they located other types of weapons. The items police found on 14 drug premises in the Greater Metropolitan Region (excluding Cabramatta) are listed below: • air rifle, rifle, and homemade weapon (type not specified) • 9 mm handgun • 0.22 calibre pistol with magazine and a number of rounds, 9mm semi automatic pistol • two 0.22 calibre rifles, seventeen boxes of 0.22 calibre ammunition with fifty rounds in each, twenty-two rounds of 0.22 calibre loose ammunition, and a silencer and a star knife 336 Ibid. 337 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 11(2)(e). 338 COPS event narratives, Western Region, Drug Premises Incidents 4, 5 and 6. 339 COPS event narrative, Northern Region, Drug Premises Incident 3. 340 COPS event narratives, Southern Region, Drug Premises Incidents 1 and 13. 68 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
• magnum revolver and a 0.357 magnum bullet • two pistols, a pump action shotgun, metal silencer, nine 0.22 bullets, one 0.303 bullet and knuckle dusters • apach nail gun • 0.22 calibre live rounds • 0.22 calibre bullet • winchester rifle, 0.32 calibre pistol, fifty-six 12 gauge shotgun shells, forty 0.32 calibre rounds and forty seven 3030 calibre rounds • replica pistol • 0.22 calibre rifle and ammunition • 0.22 calibre automatic pistol with a full magazine, ammunition, 2 magazines and a pipe bomb and • one bullet. 341 In Cabramatta, weapons and related items were located on six identified drug premises. A .22 calibre rifle was located on one, 342 and the following weapons and related items were located on the remaining five identified drug premises: • a meat cleaver, several knives, one with a black rod attached to it • nine rounds of ammunition • a samurai sword • a knife and • a box of ammunition with ninety-seven live rounds in it. 343 Officers from the State Crime Command found firearms and weapons on five premises in relation to which the Drug Premises Act was used. These items were: • three firearms, a double barrel shogun, a 12 gauge shotgun and a marlin rifle • a large quantity of ammunition • a twelve gauge shotgun, a bolt action rifle, assorted centre fire, rim fire and shotgun ammunition and a machete in a sheath and a cross bow • a .25 calibre pistol and nineteen .25 calibre rounds of ammunition and • a Chinese assault rifle, two military carbines, one single barrel shotgun, numerous rounds, bullets, homemade mace with steel ball attached to a handle by a chain. 344 In their submission to our discussion paper, the NSW Legal Aid Commission argued that the possession of weapons, particularly those which are also capable of being used as household utensils, such as knives, “are not necessarily linked with the presence of drugs, or indeed that the premises are drug premises within the meaning of the Act.” 345 As we have noted elsewhere in this chapter, it is difficult to determine the extent to which the presence of a firearm or weapon was significant to how drug premises were defined at court. Finds of firearms or other weapons on identified drug premises did not emerge as an issue in any of the court proceedings that we examined for this review, though one magistrate, quoted in “Case Study 3” in this chapter, commented on the inclusion of firearms as an indicia of drug premises in the Act. 5.5.7. Section 11(2)(f): documents and records kept in connection with drug supply or manufacture Another indicator that can be used to define drug premises is documents or other records that appear to have been kept or used in connection with the unlawful supply or manufacture of a prohibited drug, including computer records. 346 341 COPS event narratives, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incidents. 342 COPS event narrative, Cabramatta LAC, Drug Premises Incident 36. 343 COPS event narratives, Cabramatta LAC, Drug Premises Incidents 3, 8, 12, 18 and 37. 344 COPS event narratives, State Crime Command and Police Integrity Commission, Drug Premises Incidents 1, 2, 5, 8 and 13. 345 Submission, NSW Legal Aid Commission, 30 July 2003. 346 Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act, s. 11(2)(f). NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 69
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Review of the Police Powers (Drug P
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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 and 66: Number of Premises Figure 7. Razor
Page 67: However, no other evidence of drug
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
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7.6. Charges laid under the Drug Pr
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7.6.4. Young Asian people and drug
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Of these 52 people, 31 people pled
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7.8. Conclusion: Impact of the Drug
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By way of comment, the continuing a
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Chapter 8. Targeting drug supply Pa
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Table 18. Drug Misuse and Trafficki
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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
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Table 23. Drugs located, Northern R
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However, the submission concluded b
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To begin with, telephone intercepts
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The prohibited drugs that were loca
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One factor that appears to have per
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