BIG RAIDS SMASH DRUG FACTORIES

The biggest attack yet on the illegal P industry has smashed two
pill-shopping rings and taken up to 24 dealers off the streets, police say.

They said yesterday that 80 officers had arrested 54 people and knocked out
three pure methamphetamine - or P - factories during a month of raids in all
three Auckland police districts.

And they said their raids had found new drug trade middle-men - people who
recruit pill-shoppers but do no shopping themselves.

"Shoppers" are people who buy cold and flu pills from pharmacies and sell
them to be made into P.

The recruiters are a new level between the shoppers and the "cooks" who make
P.

Superintendent Tex Cox said the emergence of recruiters was alarming.

"Police found that many pill-shoppers who work for recruiters would often
travel from city to city all over the country, visiting as many pharmacies
as they could," he said.

Cooks have paid up to $3000 for 30 boxes of pills worth $420 at a pharmacy.
But those pills can make P worth $30,000.

"The return is fairly good for the shoppers, and many of them live off the
proceeds," Mr Cox said.

The crackdown, dubbed Operation Choker, took place in two phases.

The first netted 30 alleged pill-shoppers. The second, targeting dealers,
netted 24 people.

At the Auckland City police headquarters yesterday, officers showed items
seized during the raids.

They included bags of cash, crystals thought to be P, a .22 automatic
pistol, boxes of ammunition, glass pipes and empty packets of flu
medications.

Detective Inspector Stu Allsopp-Smith, of Auckland metro crime services,
said a surprising feature was that many of the shoppers arrested did not
have criminal records.

"The unusual thing with P is that it's represented in all walks of life
within the community," he said.

Operation Choker was the fourth P crackdown in which officers from
Auckland's three police districts have worked together.

Last November, 45 people were arrested, most for pill shopping, in Operation
Desk.

The people arrested during the past month will appear in district courts
throughout Greater Auckland.

Charges will include dealing in class-A drugs.

Police throughout New Zealand are debating the best way to tackle gangs,
which operate much of the P trade.

Auckland's organised crime squad head, Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier,
said about 90 per cent of pure methamphetamine was made by gangs, many of
which were collaborating with one another - something that would never have
happened five or six years ago.

He said better laws were needed to target the proceeds of organised crime if
New Zealand was to get on top of its P problem, which was at "epidemic"
levels.

Superintendent Fred Gere from Western Australia, speaking at the Police
Association's annual conference in Wellington, said strict laws introduced
in his state in 2001 enabling authorities to confiscate all assets not
proven to be lawfully obtained were striking fear into criminals.

NZ police figures show that since 1995 police have made 139 seizure orders
worth about $30 million under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

From those, 74 forfeiture orders worth about $13 million were made.

Mr Gere said the only way to stop gang members' illegal activity was to hit
them where it hurt - in the wallet.

Justice Minister Phil Goff agreed that changes to toughen the Proceeds of
Crime Act were needed and said he expected legislation to be introduced next
year.

Herald Feature - The P epidemic -
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storyarchive.cfm?reportID=3D1162612