Pubdate: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2000 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: GPO Box 3771, Sydney NSW 2001 Fax: +61-(0)2-9282 3492 Website: http://www.smh.com.au/ Forum: http://forums.fairfax.com.au/ Author: Philip Cornford DEALERS MAKE A KILLING KEEPING REVELLERS ECSTATIC The big spenders are in town or on the way. And the ecstasy dealers are stoked up and waiting to make their fortunes. With $100 million to spend, visitors pouring in for Sydney's biggest and longest dance party - the month-long Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras - will not find any difficulty obtaining supplies of the "hug drug". Despite two raids last month which netted Australian record seizures totalling 126 kilograms - about 700,000 ecstasy tablets worth about $30 million on the streets - there is no shortage of the most popular brands, CK Gold, Road Runner, Blue Turtles, Olympic and Mitsubishi. The supply is so plentiful the price remains the same: $35 to $50 a tablet, depending on who one buys from. One to two tablets are considered a normal consumption for an all-night party. Some users also take cocaine and amphetamines. Most ecstasy is imported from the Netherlands or Britain at $5 a tablet and wholesaled to dealers at $15-$20, depending on how many they buy. The Mardi Gras, with more than 600,000 visitors, is a huge potential market. "From Thursday nights through to Monday morning, it's a non-stop party," said the local area commander for Surry Hills, Superintendent Gary Hodsdon whose men patrol the Oxford Street "pink zone". The local area commander for City Central, Superintendent Donald Graham, said: "Our intelligence is that there has not been any drop in availability." Police estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 mostly young people attend at least a dozen big dance parties in these two areas each weekend. Superintendent Graham said: "Our assessment is that in some instances it is highly improbable that recreational drugs are available without the knowledge of the security staff and the management." Three weeks ago, police arrested three employees at a popular Kings Cross venue and charged them with selling cocaine and ecstasy to nightclubbers. They raided the club at 10pm on a Friday night and seized 3,000 tablets. The raid by 60 police came after undercover detectives gathered intelligence in an operation that lasted three months. "Using undercover police is a difficult and dangerous operation," Superintendent Hodsdon said. "For every agent we send in, we also have to send in a back-up team ready to make an instant response to any threat. "They must be under surveillance and in communication every second they're in there. "Some of these places are so dark, you've got to know exactly where you're going and what you are going to do when you get there. So it requires a number of operations to get any information." - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst