SPECIAL TEAM TO HIT DRUG BARONS

AN EXTRA 300 police would be recruited to help resurrect a specialist
police drug unit in a $34 million Coalition plan to combat Sydney's rising
drug trade.

Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovaki said a NSW drugs agency would be
created in a move that would reverse a key reform proposal from the police
royal commission.

Announcing the policy in a Kings Cross park, symbolic heart of Sydney's
heroin network. Mrs Chikarovskl said the State Government was losing the
war against drug lords.

She said: "There is about one death every day from illicit drug overdoses
in NSW and abusers steal up to an estimated $1.5 billion per year to fund
their habits.

"In NSW we will not tolerate the drug barons killing the children in our
streets.

"The agency will become a clearing-house for intelligence about trafficking
in hard drugs to reduce crime, clean up our streets and stop drugs from
killing more children."

The proposed agency would be established immediately after the election,
using specialist drug officers now working in the Crime Agencies - a unit
set up in response to the police royal commission.

Mrs Chikarovski said that only 50 police were specialising in drug crimes -
a figure the Government refuted - which the Coalition would gradually build
up to 300 in the specialist agency.

Four strikeforces would be established within the proposed unit
specialising in heroin, amphetamines, plantations and manufacture.

Mrs Chikarovski said an additional $24 million a year would be spent on the
extra police and $10 million in the first year on the latest surveillance
equipment for the unit.

Police Commissioner Peter Ryan refused to comment on the announcement,
other than to say: "That's an interesting proposal, I'd like to see the
details of it"

But the Government warned it would risk sending policing back to the "bad
old days" of cronyism and corruption that blighted the pre-royal commission
era of drug crime-fighting.

Attorney-General Jeff Shaw said: "The Opposition's proposal is an
inefficient and incompetent duplication of what is currently going on in
the NSW Police Service.

"It has the potential for the bad old days to return and destroy or damage
the effective combating of the drug trade that is currently going on.

Opposition police spokesman Andrew Tink said the new unit would be
"fireproofed" against corrupt practices by ensuring the Police Integrity
Commission was involved in its creation.

He said the number of drug-related arrests and charges had fallen sharply
under the Carr Government since the Drug Enforcement Agency was replaced
with Crime Agencies in July 1997.

But Crime Agencies Commander Clive Small told The Daily Telegraph last
night that arrest rates were "at least" at the same level under the new
structure.

The Police Association said it could not judge the proposal until the
Coalition had released its entire police recruitment package.