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

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Documents that police associated with drug supply were found on 19 drug premises in the Greater Metropolitan Region, which is about 25% of the premises in that region. Police found documents associated with drug supply on a small number of premises in other regions. The table below shows the number and type of document that police believed to be associated with drug supply or manufacture that was located on identified drug premises. Table 5. Items associated with supply or manufacture of drugs Region/command Type of item (number of premises at which item located) Greater Metropolitan Region Ticksheets (found on 5 premises) Customer ledger (2) Paper work or notepad depicting names and amounts of money owing (2) Paper work that depicted orders indicative of drug supply(2) Documents outlining drug transactions (1) Diary with drug weights and references to bag numbers (1) Prohibited drug price list (1) Type of document not specified (2) Paper with defendant’s mobile phone written on it (2) Raffle ticket book (1) Inner Metropolitan Region Number of figures relating to calculations, (no further details provided) Northern Region A note pad with names of known drug users and business cards Southern Region Tick sheet Western Region Tick sheet (found on 2 premises) State Crime Command Documents in two brief cases, including instructions for creating a clandestine laboratory and the steps involved in manufacturing amphetamine and receipts from a laboratory supplies company Computer hard drive Source: COPS event narratives and police search warrant documents Tick sheets were one of the more common types of documents found. A tick sheet is a list of creditors” names and amounts of money owing. These came in a variety of forms, including a list written on a wall, a list on the side of tissue box, a diary, and writings related to drug supply on old TAB tickets. On one identified drug premises in Cabramatta, police found a book of raffle tickets. The search of the premises was conducted following a series of street-level undercover drug buys. According to the event narrative, on the second occasion that drugs were purchased, the undercover officer had been told by the occupant of the premises that “each time [the undercover officer] bought from him, he would receive a raffle ticket. Once three tickets were obtained, a free buy could be obtained”. 347 Another undercover buy was conducted, and an orange raffle ticket was provided, but on the following occasion when $100 worth of heroin was purchased from the occupant, it is noted that: The [undercover officer] inquired about the issue of a raffle ticket, however, the defendant stated that he did not do that anymore as he was losing money. 348 Shortly after, the man was arrested by police. During a search of his home, police located items including water balloons, scales, money that matched that previously used by the undercover officer to purchase drugs, and an orange raffle ticket book with tickets one to twenty missing. 349 347 COPS event narrative, Cabramatta LAC, Incident 25. 348 Ibid. 349 The man received a four year gaol sentence for “supplying drugs on an ongoing basis”, under section 25A of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, and a one year gaol sentence, to be served concurrently, for organising drug premises. Police v Hoang Van Nguyen, 22 August 2003, p.1. 70 NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001
5.5.8. Section 11(2)(g): large amounts of money unaccounted for The quantities of money that were found on identified drug premises are detailed in the chapter on targeting drug supply. 5.5.9. Section 11(2)(h): presence of drug affected people Evidence that there were persons found on premises who appeared to be affected by prohibited drugs is the final indicia of drug premises in the Act. Concerns were expressed in submissions to our discussion paper, and in parliamentary debate about the Act, that the term drug affected was too subjective. 350 We have considered some instances in which drug affected people were found on premises. For example, in one event narrative that relates to the use of the legislation in the Northern Region, police noted that during the execution of the search warrant, both defendants appeared to be at least mildly affected by a drug. However, it is difficult to determine what weight police attached to this observation. 351 Police also note in the event narrative that when they searched the house, they found scales, aluminium foil, a small cutting tool, cannabis and what they believed to be heroin. Police noted that they also had evidence of a number of people coming and going from the premises. 352 There were also instances, which we discuss below, when police entered a house to execute the search warrant and found people in the process of injecting drugs. In these instances, police note that illicit drug use had taken place on the premises and sometimes charges of self administration were laid. 5.6. How many indicia were used to define identified drug premises Concerns have been raised that charges under the Drug Premises Act were laid on the basis of only a few of the indicia set out in Section 11 of the Act. A submission we received from the NSW Legal Aid Commission included the following comments: It is the concern of solicitors within the Legal Aid Commission that charges laid under the legislation are on the basis that only a few of the indicia set out in Section 11 have been met and that the evidence does not support a conclusion that the premises are being used for the supply or manufacture of prohibited drugs as required by Section 11(1). 353 There were some court cases in which the number of indicia that had been used to define particular drug premises was at issue, and these cases are discussed below. In one court case, the definition of the drug premises became a crucial question of the case. However, in most of the court cases that we examined, there was little discussion of the various indicia that police had used to define particular drug premises. This was often because the person pleaded guilty to the charge, so the question of whether the premises were drug premises was not in dispute. On other occasions, most of the argument in the court case centred on the relationship of the person to the premises, rather than the nature of the premises itself. 5.6.1. Are drug premises defined by a range of indicia Due to the relatively small number of court proceedings in which the definition of drug premises was discussed, it is difficult to determine if, and to what extent, drug premises were defined by a small number of the indicia set out in the Act. In a focus group we conducted, one police officer commented that: Even though you’ve got those indicators, how many of those indicators are required is not clearly defined, in some circumstances, you may only have two or three, whereas in other places you may the whole ambit of all the indicators. 354 Event narratives and other documents we examined for this review, such as briefs of evidence, suggest that police usually defined drug premises using a range of indicia. For example, the following extract from an event narrative that relates to the use of the Act in the Greater Metropolitan Region is fairly typical of the events we examined: The nature of the items located at the premises being, drugs, camera surveillance, scanners on police frequencies, bongs, scales and resealable plastic bags, the frequency of people attending the premises have lead police to believe the premises are being used for the supply of prohibited drugs (Drug premises). The defendant was located on those drug premises. 355 350 Submission, NSW Users and Aids Association, and Submission, East Area Tenants Service. This concern was also raised in parliamentary debate on the Act, by the Hon. R. Jones, NSWPD, 7 June 2001, p. 14631. 351 COPS event narrative, Northern Region, Drug Premises Incident 3. 352 Ibid. 353 Submission, Legal Aid Commission, 354 Focus group, Cabramatta police, 2 July 2003. 355 COPS event narrative, Greater Metropolitan Region, Drug Premises Incident 10. NSW Ombudsman Review of the Police Powers (Drug Premises) Act 2001 71
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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
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Part One. Background. Chapter 1. In
Page 11 and 12:
Drug offences, unlike for example,
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elieve is in a public place with th
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Chapter 2. Methodology In this chap
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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 and 68: However, no other evidence of drug
Page 69: • magnum revolver and a 0.357 mag
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
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
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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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