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

• 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
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