NIGHTCLUBS ORDERED CLOSED AFTER DRUG RAIDS BY POLICE

Four city nightclubs face closure following police raids early yesterday in
which drugs were allegedly found.

About 200 police converged on two Oxford Street clubs, while 100 other
officers raided three other clubs at Kings Cross and Double Bay.

More than 1,000 nightclub patrons were searched by police accompanied by
nine drug-detection dogs in the simultaneous raids that began at 1am.

Some bleary-eyed clubbers shouted abuse and booed as they watched police
frisking men and women as they emerged from the clubs.

The nightclubs hit included DCM and NV in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, the
Embassy in Cross Street, Double Bay, and the EPI and Zen nightclubs in
Kings Cross.

All five were closed by police for 72 hours while five other clubs in
Oxford Street also had their licences checked.

Police warned of further raids and that other nightclubs faced shutdowns if
they did not get rid of drug dealers and users.

City East Region Assistant Commissioner Dick Adams said he could not
believe the sight on the vacated dance floors of two of the nightclubs he
inspected before dawn yesterday, where two hours earlier hundreds had been
dancing in the heat-filled rooms.

Before him lay dozens of small empty plastic bags and white powdery
substances lay in scattered patches. Other discarded plastic bags contained
tablets or powder believed to be speed, cocaine or ecstasy.

Those who received close attention from the sniffer dogs were taken aside
and subjected to a thorough search.

Eighteen people, including two men who allegedly sold drugs to undercover
police inside DCM, were arrested on drug-related charges while nine others
received cautions for minor cannabis use.

The clothes of more than 200 other party-goers subjected to "passive
searches" by the dogs indicated drug residue, though no drugs were found.

Mr Adams said the raids, which closed Oxford Street to traffic for four
hours, were not a stunt in the face of damaging revelations at the Police
Integrity Commission of corrupt police links to drug dealers.

The raids culminated an eight-month operation with the State Crime
Commission involving controlled drug purchases by undercover police aimed
at identifying dealers, he said.

Mr Adams said evidence had been gathered linking organised crime to some
clubs and that dealers who escaped arrest yesterday would be detained soon.

"I will be applying to the licensing court to close four of those premises
permanently," he said.

"The owners of these clubs must now show cause as to why they should be
allowed to remain in business."