Pubdate: Sun, 20 May 2012
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2012 Canberra Times
Contact:  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/71
Author: Lisa Davies

FIGHT TO FIND DRUG LABS IN THE SUBURBS

Almost 70 per cent of the manufacture of illegal stimulants is taking
place in secret laboratories in residential areas.

They're everywhere. Houses, farms, cars, caravans, hotels, motels and
industrial factories. But most of the time, they're in your
neighbourhood.

Drug manufacturing in Australia is a multibillion-dollar industry and
at the heart of the trade are the clandestine laboratories sprinkled
across the country.

Clan labs, as they are commonly known, range from crude, makeshift
operations that involve simple processes to highly sophisticated
operations that use technically advanced equipment. The laboratories
can produce extraordinary quantities of the amphetamine-type
stimulants that hit the streets with names such as speed, ice and ecstasy.

According to statistics from the Australian Crime Commission's Illicit
Drug Data Report, released last week, almost 70 per cent of clan labs
are in residential areas.

Known to authorities as methamphetamine, detections of such substances
account for about 15 per cent of all drug discoveries in NSW,
including cannabis. They account for about 40 per cent of detections
if cannabis isn't included.

In 2010-11, police shut down a record 703 of these operations across
Australia.

The commander of the NSW Drug Squad, Detective Superintendent Nick
Bingham, said police have shut down 33 this year already. In just 10
days this month, 11 clandestine labs were found and dismantled.

''We can attribute the increase to the fact that we're getting better
at finding them and more than 60 per cent of labs found are as a
result of ... intelligence or information relating to supply or
manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants and are mainly
methamphetamine labs,'' Superintendent Bingham said.

In Victoria, police shut down 63 labs last year, while in Queensland
authorities closed 293 operations, mostly smaller labs for personal
use.

But NSW is home to the majority of medium to large laboratories, in
particular, some of the ''very large'' or ''commercial'' size operations.

Superintendent Bingham said commercial labs were generally established
by syndicates or organised criminals, who ''on-sell in bulk''.

''These labs churn out quantities from a few hundred grams to tens of
kilograms at a time and, if not located, have the potential to
manufacture hundreds of kilograms each,'' Superintendent Bingham said.

''As an example, the drug squad have busted several large labs in the
past year or so that had this capacity.''

He said while it is difficult to comment on the size of the illicit
drug market, last year police seized 159 kilograms of methamphetamine
in 3437 seizures with a conservative street value of about $200 million.

The operations are a big money-spinner for those in the game - and are
not restricted to bikie gangs.

Superintendent Bingham said Middle Eastern organised crime groups,
international syndicates and Australian gangs have also been involved
in drug manufacture, either by taking part in the cooking process,
supplying precursor chemicals, facilitating premises to manufacture,
or paying specialists from outside gangs to do the hard work for them.

There is also a growing trade in arranging the importation of
precursor chemicals, such as pseudoephedrine, a task made easier
because of less-stringent controls in countries such as India and China.

In the past, cold and flu medication packets were found at clan labs,
but increased supervision at the cash register has made the
international option more viable.

Among the products being imported is ContacNT, a pseudoephedrine-based
cold and flu preparation that is made in China for the Asian market.

''It has a much higher dose of pseudo than what is manufactured here
and is relatively simple to extract for preparation,'' Superintendent
Bingham said.

It is understood Customs has seized more than 800 kilograms of the
product in the past year, while 650 kilograms were seized last
December by the NSW Drug Squad.
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