GARAGE SALE BOOM: IT'S A BUST

Amphetamine Labs In The Suburbs Have Been Linked To Bikie
Gangs.

It was around five o'clock on a Tuesday evening when the peace and
quiet of leafy Parsonage Street in Castle Hill was disturbed by the
sudden arrival of the police.

Residents were startled to see eight armed detectives clad in
fire-resistant black overalls run under a jacaranda, past a low hedge
and into a typical suburban brick-and-tile home with a garage that
opened onto a side street.

Inside the garage, police say, they found about half a kilogram of
pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient for the manufacture of
methyl-amphetamine, better known as speed.

The pseudoephedrine had been extracted from Sudafed and Logicen
tablets - sold every day across the counter in chemists around the
country.

"We sort of knew something was going on in there," said a neighbour,
who asked not to be named.

She'd noticed a lot of cars, including a white Porsche, coming and
going. "The people that lived there always seemed to be in the garage,
but the cars never seemed to be in the garage."

What the officers from the chemical operations unit of Crime Agencies
had found was a small clandestine drug laboratory. And they're finding
more of them in the suburban streets of Sydney than ever before -
Castle Hill, discovered last month, was the 14th lab this year.

Late last week, police following leads from that raid arrested a
27-year-old man in Bankstown and charged him with manufacturing
offences. It is alleged he was making the speed for two outlaw
motorcycle gangs.

That raid took the number of labs discovered this year to
15.

In recent years the speed business has undergone some big structural
changes because of police cracking down on the supply of bulk
chemicals. But when that avenue was choked off, those involved in the
illegal trade simply went to the chemist.

Fourteen of the 15 labs discovered have relied on tablets such as
Sudafed for their supply of pseudoephedrine.

In addition, clandestine drug labs are now smaller and more efficient
than their counterparts from the 1980s and 1990s. What has also
emerged recently - and what is worrying senior police - is the
increasing role played in the multi-million-dollar business by the
bikies.

"They've always been involved," said Detective Inspector Paul
Willing-ham, from the chemical operations unit. "But two years ago
they had a much lower profile. In the last 12 to 18 months they have
re-emerged as the major player, the major force in the market."

The 15 labs found so far compare to 20 discovered in 1999. They've
been in Belfield, Blacktown, Minto, Mt Druitt, St Mary's, Pitt Town,
Luddenham, Cranbrook, Prospect, Yagoona, Sutherland, Budgewoi,
Newcastle and Leeton.

With last week's arrest, 26 people have been charged with
manufacturing.

"We've certainly had a surge over the last few months," said Inspector
Willingham, who has a degree in applied science and, at 35, is one of
the State's youngest detective-inspectors.

He says that with a kilogram of pure methyl-amphetamine selling to a
wholesaler for $100,000, the profits are big and the jail sentences
for those caught - about five years - are usually much lower than for
heroin.

By the time it hits the streets, the speed has usually been cut with
Epsom salts or sugar and the purity is just 5 per cent. A gram of
powder sells for $80 to $100.

Police say that in the past, 25-kilogram drums of pseudoephedrine were
coming into the country "like normal chemicals" and were simply being
bought via a legitimate distributor or stolen. A lot of work had been
done with Customs and various health departments and now the security
arrangements were comparable "to that with firearms and gold".

This had forced a change in tactics by those in the business. "Three
or four years ago the big syndicates which had big labs were using 25
kilo drums. You would have someone get a big shed and set up a
20-litre reaction flask," Inspector Willingham said. "They would do a
'cook' once every three to four months producing 10-20 kilos ."

The crackdown on the supply of bulk chemicals had forced syndicates to
buy drugs like Sudafed over the counter, to steal from chemists or to
intercept bulk quantities in the distribution chain.

"Now they are using a five-litre reaction flask, they will 'cook'
every two to three weeks - they are churning out more and the process
is simpler, faster and more efficient."

These labs were typically found in the bathroom or laundry and were
turning out between one and two kilograms at a time.

It seems that it's a close-knit industry. "There are links between the
raids we've done, everyone knows of everyone else," Inspector
Willingham said. "If someone [in one syndicate] is short of product A,
they might source this from this other group.

"It's like baking a cake, there are three or four main ingredients you
need as well as the tablets."

He said those involved were typically well organised with one person
crushing and filtering the tablets before handing them to someone else
who had the expertise to do the cook.

Of the bikie gangs, Inspector Willing-ham said: "I don't know whether
the bikie gangs are getting more complacent. They've never gone away
but they just seem more and more common, more and more of our jobs
have outlaw motorcycle links to them."