POLICE BLAMED FOR DRUGS CRISIS

Police inaction was largely to blame for Cabramatta's huge drug
problem, a local councillor claimed yesterday.

Fairfield City Councillor Thang Ngo said police had ignored the
problem deliberately for years.

Cr Ngo's comments follow allegations by a Cabramatta detective that
police were hindering drug investigations to improve their chances of
promotion.

Detective Sergeant Tim Priest made his claims in a letter sent earlier
this month to the president of the NSW Police Association, Mr Mark
Burgess, which has been passed on to the NSW Police Commissioner, Mr
Peter Ryan.

In his letter, published in yesterday's Sun-Herald, Sergeant Priest
stated: "It is highly evident that certain senior ranks are prepared
to cover up [the drug situation] in order to attain promotion.

"They are prepared to destroy any decent police officer willing to
fight the odds and continue to make a difference. They are prepared to
lie, conspire, pervert and cover up ...," he stated in the letter.

The police association and the Cabramatta Chamber of Commerce have
asserted that heroin dealing is so rampant in the suburb that police
have lost the initiative to control it, the newspaper report said.

A spokesman for Mr Ryan was quoted as saying he was not aware of the
letter "at short notice".

Cr Ngo yesterday applauded Sergeant Priest's actions, saying the
people of Cabramatta were jubilant police had spoken out on the drugs
issue.

He said police had laid blame for the suburb's drug problem on
Cabramatta's hard-working Asian community for too long.

"Finally, the truth is getting out - for years the police have turned
a blind eye to drugs in Cabramatta," Cr Ngo said.

"The fact is police inaction is as much to blame for Cabramatta's
drugs problem. I am angry, very angry, that police inaction for so
many years has damaged the reputation of Cabramatta's hard-working
Asian community."

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Police, Mr Whelan, said last night
the minister would not comment on the matter.