ARRESTS WRECK DRUG GANG'S MOVE TO CBD

NSW police and the National Crime Authority have smashed an alleged
drug syndicate operating from two Kings Cross high-rise luxury
apartment blocks which employed a network of teenage street runners to
sell heroin and marijuana.

Police also revealed yesterday that the three-month covert
surveillance operation which led to the arrest of 13 people has
destroyed plans by drug dealers to expand street dealing operations to
the heart of the Sydney CBD.

Police said drug dealers had planned to sell heroin at the Town Hall
underground railway complex and also at Bondi Junction.

Three pistols, $270,000 worth of heroin and cannabis and $330,000 in
cash was seized in the raids on 11 premises.

Police also revealed one of the alleged drug runners, a 16-year-old
boy from Rushcutters Bay, had been placed in protective custody after
receiving death threats after he appeared in a photograph with a
newspaper article on Kings Cross street drug dealing.

The boy, arrested and charged with stealing and drug supply offences,
appeared in Lidcombe Children's Court yesterday.

Kings Cross police commander, Superintendent Bob Myatt, said that "the
young person on the front page of the paper, as a result of that
[publication] has received death threats."

Also arrested was a 35 year-old United States citizen living in
Pyrmont and wanted by the FBI for alleged passport and drug
trafficking violations.

The man, Nicholas Mitchell, did not enter a plea and was remanded in
custody when he appeared before the Downing Centre Local Court
yesterday charged with conspiracy to supply a commercial quantity of
heroin, supplying and possessing heroin, goods in custody and
possessing a 9mm pistol.

Superintendent Myatt said the police operation, codenamed Elan and
Poido, was begun three months ago and culminated in 89 detectives from
Kings Cross and the City East Region, and the NCA, carrying out raids
in Kings Cross and throughout the metropolitan area at 3am on Monday.

Those who appeared in court yesterday were refused bail with the
exception of a Hurstville woman, 4O, who was charged with goods in
custody.

Superintendent Myatt said he believed police "have now smashed a major
heroin distribution ring in the Kings Cross area and expect this will
have a significant impact on the drug trade".

He added the operation was conducted in an environment where police
for the past three months had to weather criticism over street drug
dealing in Kings Cross and complaints about their alleged inaction.

He also said there were times when media exposis on the dealers almost
destroyed the overt work by his officers and the NCA.

"This has been a lengthy investigation by the Kings Cross police, and
particularly the drug unit and the National Crime Authority over a
period of months," he said.

"Media speculation and their investigations and coverage on drug
activity in Kings Cross and the area had a significant impact against
us operationally, and had the potential to blow this operation out of
the water."

Chief Inspector Geoff Steer, from Kings Cross, said police had
identified "street runners" employed by drug syndicates working on a
24-hour basis who "had planned to spread their organisation to Town
Hall in the City and Bondi and several other areas".