RAID ON FISH AND CHIP SHOP AFTER UNDERCOVER DRUG DEAL

A Bay of Plenty fish and chip shop has allegedly been selling drugs
over the counter - just metres from two schools.

Police raided Cameron Rd Takeaways - opposite Te Puke High and Te Puke
Primary - on Friday, after the Sunday Star-Times had agreed to hold
off publishing a story last weekend, alerted by a source concerned at
the area's blatant drug dealing.

The case follows discoveries of tinnie houses operating near schools
in Porirua, Auckland and Christchurch, and one found next to Labour MP
Ross Robertson's Otara, Auckland, electorate office in April.

Te Puke residents said young people, including school students,
frequented the back of Cameron Rd Takeaways at all hours.

The Star-Times sent two people into the store in an attempt to buy
drugs. One asked to buy P and was told by the woman at the counter to
come back later, when a man could help him out. Later the man denied
he was selling P. The following day a second person asked to "score"
and was offered a "tinnie" of cannabis for $20.

When approached, local police said they had known about the drug
dealing for about two weeks but were too busy with burglaries to
launch an operation. Western Bay area commander Inspector Murray Lewis
later said police had made two unsuccessful attempts to buy drugs.

Friday's raid involved a drug dog and detectives after three
undercover cannabis purchases were made last week. A man was taken
away for questioning and later released. A woman is still being
sought. Police said cannabis-related charges are being considered.

Police insiders say the practice shows how brazen local drug dealers
have become due to police indifference to drug crimes. One source said
officers had been told to focus on "volume crime", such as burglaries
and car thefts.

He said officers who initiated investigations into drug and organised
crime had been told to stop as it was creating too much work for the
CIB.

Police bosses support the region's "whole of policing" approach, where
dedicated drug squads are ditched in favour of different divisions
working together to target a range of criminals.

But some senior officers say drug crimes in particular are going
uninvestigated. Police sources said methamphetamine crimes have taken
off in the Bay of Plenty, highlighted by the P-related murders of
Mikaere O'Sullivan and Toni-Anne Nathan at Te Puna last October.
Anthony Doyle pleaded guilty to the killings last week.

"There is no organised crime or drug intelligence capacity in the Bay
of Plenty - we don't do drug work," said Detective Sergeant Mel
Ridley, the Police Association's Bay of Plenty co-ordinator. He said
Auckland drug dealers saw the area as a soft touch and drug squad
officers from other areas were sick of having to investigate drug
crimes originating from the Bay of Plenty. "School children all know
where the drugs are."

But Lewis defended the "whole of policing" policy. He said the
approach worked well because the same offenders were usually
responsible for different crimes. Drug offences were not recorded
until after an arrest was made, unlike burglaries, which were recorded
as soon as a complaint was laid.

"For want of a better word it (drug offending) is a victimless
crime."

Area commander Superintendent Gary Smith said police officers who
criticised the "whole of policing" method were old-fashioned and the
new method was a good strategy.