Police News Mar 06.indd - New Zealand Police Association

PoliceNewsThe Voice of Police“Drug trafficking syndicates are continually evolving moreand more sophisticated methods to evade detection for drugshipments, and this is yet another example of this.”- New Zealand Customs Service Manager for Drug Investigations,Simon Williamson, referring to the seizure of half a kilogramof liquid cocaine (concealed in the perfume bottles picturedopposite) at Auckland international Airport recently.- Photo courtesy NZ Customs.New Zealand Customs and Police have recently stopped some large-scalemeth importations – notably the seizure of 8.1 kilograms in Wellington,which had a street value of $8 million – New Zealand’s biggest bust to date.Other significant seizures have been made in Auckland, Christchurch andWellington. One operation was dealing over $100,000 of meth a week.To put this in perspective, the total of all border seizures of crystal meth for2005 was 11.8 kilograms. Organised crime syndicates are clearly becomingbolder in their efforts to import larger quantities of the drug in to NewZealand.Tip of the iceberg?Customs and Police admit that they may be only getting the tip of theiceberg in relation to the amount of precursors and ready-made meth beingimported.A senior Customs official, spoken to by Police News, estimated that Customsand Police were responsible for stopping somewhere between seven and20% of all importations.Detective Inspector Don Allan says of the seizure rate: “Say if we werelooking at a seizure rate as high as 20% – and I tend to think that’s probablyway over the top – and that’s one-fifth of what is coming into the country,then we really have some issues.”The demand for ampethamines knows no bounds, as is evidenced by thefact that in the last six years clan lab busts have risen from just nine to ahigh of 204 last year. Some are only kitchen-sink type operations, whichhave a small output capacity and Police News understands that Police areinvestigating the possibility of differentiating between clan labs based on alab’s capacity.Senior police officers say that while meth/P has a high media profilebecause of the high profile murder cases and mega violence associatedwith it, society should not lose sight of the fact that alcohol abuse accountsfor some 70% of interaction with police. Allan agrees: “I’m not suggestingfor one second that we don’t have major problems with P but there is atendency to forget that our major problem as a society is alcohol, but thedifference is that alcohol is accepted in society.”Fuelling other crimesDrug Squad and Intelligence officers say that meth is at the heart of amultitude of other crimes such as car thefts, property crimes, fraud andburglaries, to name but a few. These crimes become the domain of addictswho lack the incomes of the middle-class user.On a global scale, transnational crime syndicates are known to be involvedin terrorism, intellectual property theft, trafficking in drugs, arms and people,insurance and computer fraud, piracy, bribery and corruption of publicofficials and the trade of human body parts.Demand and huge profit margins are the motivating factors driving the crimesyndicates to import drugs into New Zealand. In Asia, a gram of crystal methis manufactured for the equivalent of $4.20 (NZ) and will be sold on thestreet for as little as $50 (NZ) while here it can sell for between $800 (NZ)(usually $100 a point with 10 points to the gram; but when buying a gramthe price would usually be discounted).American drug agency sources told Police News that the most lucrativeplaces for Asian drug cartels to ply their trade in meth are Hawaii and Guam,where they are getting double the price available in mainland USA, wherethe drug is usually cut to around 38% purity.International responseIn order to try and stop the prolific trade developing in countries alongthe Pacific Rim, the US State Department has been sponsoring top drugenforcement officials from Asia, New Zealand, Australia, and other Pacificnations to travel to the United States to discuss strategies for dealing withthe problem. Police News understands that US officials are working closelywith mainland Chinese officials also.Paul Smith, Professor of transnational security issues at the Asia PacificCenter for Security Studies, calls the burgeoning problem of transnationalsyndicates targeting Pacific countries as “the devil’s dilemma”.“It is always a potential problem because we have a huge market for this(ice) like we all know,” Smith said. He said that as police became moreeffective at closing down local clan labs they might inadvertently create moreof a market for the imported variety (of ice) and “that’s the devil’s dilemmathat we have,” he added.Sheriff’s Office returns property after 29 yearsYou know the one about Police always gettingtheir man?Well, one Toronto resident has had his faithin human nature restored after having his lostproperty returned to him – 29 years after he‘misplaced’ it.In 1977, John Bayles of Mission, Kansas andnow of Toronto, left behind property including$23.87 in US currency, a silver dollar which wasover 100 years old, several foreign coins, andsome commemorative coins.Sheriff’s deputies took the items to the JohnsonCounty Sheriff’s office and logged them into thestation’s lost property office.Just recently, Sheriff Frank Denning made adecision to purge the property rooms of old itemsand return property to their rightful owners. Thehunt for John Bayles began. After some gooddetective work by property clerks Robert Johnstonand Mel Soper, Mr Bayles was located in Canadaand through an evaluation process, whichincluded him specifically identifying several of thecoins, he was reunited with his goods.38March 2006