SNIFFER DOGS GIVE POLICE AN EDGE

Sunshine Coast police say they are winning the war against crime in
the region's entertainment precincts after another successful weekend
blitz, which targeted drug and public nuisance offences.

More than 50 police officers drawn from Sunshine Coast district, the
Operations Support Command and State Crime Operations descended on
Noosa and Caloundra on Friday night and Mooloolaba on Saturday night
as part of Operation Jettison.

It began on Friday with police executing search warrants at 14
addresses across the Coast and arresting 20 people on 52 charges,
mainly related to drug and property offences.

Later that evening, officers patrolled Noosa and Caloundra tourism
hotspots, resulting in 14 arrests on 19 charges, mainly drug and
public order offences.

Phase two hit Mooloolaba about 10pm on Saturday when officers,
assisted by two drug detection dogs, stopped and searched hundreds of
revellers along the Esplanade and outside nightclub hotspots.

Twenty-nine people were arrested on 37 charges during the evening,
including seven found to be in possession of illicit drugs.

The drug detection dogs sniffed 250 people in Mooloolaba.

Sixty of those were questioned by police after the dogs reacted to them.

The majority admitted they had been in contact with illicit drugs
earlier in the day.

Police also arrested two people for obstructing the dogs, and twice
found bags of amphetamines abandoned outside licensed premises.

Superintendent Ben Hanbidge said the results of the operation were pleasing.

"What is most pleasing is that the number of offenders being located
with drugs in Mooloolaba has declined on each occasion we have run
the operations utilising the drug detection dogs," he said.

"To me this is a clear indication that what we are doing is achieving
its aim of reducing the illicit drug use in the Mooloolaba precinct,
and the follow-on benefits of reduced liquor and drug-related crime.

"The first occasion the drug dogs were utilised there was some 42
offenders located with drugs, on the next occasion there were 13 and
on this last occasion over the weekend, seven offenders were apprehended.

"To me that says the message is finally getting through that if
people bring or use drugs into Mooloolaba they have a fair chance of
getting caught."

Superintendent Hanbidge said it would not be the last police blitz
across the Coast.

"In the last 12 months the Maroochydore police division, which
includes Mooloolaba, has seen significant reductions in serious
assaults, sexual assaults and robbery offences," he said.

"It is clear that these types of operations directly contribute to
that result."