POLICE SWOOP NETS $54M OF CANNABIS

Police have wiped out nearly $54 million worth of cannabis plants in a
sweep through the upper North Island.

The raid is part of a national cannabis eradication programme which is
under way.

Each year police use a helicopter and a spotter plane to identify cannabis
plants. They then spray them or manually pull them out of the ground.

The national programme co-ordinator, Detective Senior Sergeant Don Lee,
said that since January police had targeted cannabis crops in Northland,
Waikato, the Bay of Plenty and the Gisborne area.

At least 54,000 plants had been destroyed during the $500,000 project -
35,000 in the Bay of Plenty and 19,500 in Northland.

The head of the Whangarei drug squad, Detective Sergeant Grant Smith, said
20 police had recently helped to arrest 67 people and seize plants around
Kaitaia and Kaikohe valued at around $1000 each.

The Northland seizures totalled 6100 more plants than last year even though
fewer people had been arrested.

It was the first time in nearly four years that plant seizures had increased.

The biggest plot, with 1000 plants, was found in the Kaitaia area.

However, the numbers were still not as high as in 1995, when 45,633 plants
were destroyed in Northland.

Mr Smith said growers then were cultivating big plantations that were
easily detected.

The quality of cannabis plants found in Northland was high, he said. They
ranged from seedlings to plants 2.5m tall.

Many growers had shifted their operations from around Kaikohe to the Far
North, said Mr Smith. Some were using camouflage nets to beat the police.

Other growers had stolen vehicles and chemicals used for the manufacture of
methamphetamines, he said.

Most of those arrested had already appeared in the Kaitaia or Kaikohe
District Courts.

In the Rotorua, Taupo and Tokoroa section of the eradication operation,
police executed 30 search warrants, arrested 20 people and destroyed 13,000
plants, 2000 more than last year, said Detective Sergeant John Wilson of
Rotorua.

Detective Sergeant Ross Everest of the Eastern Bay of Plenty CIB said the
national programme involved police using a fixed-wing aircraft to find
cannabis, then a helicopter with spray equipment to swoop down to spray the
crops.

Some growers were planting in places where a helicopter could not be used,
such as under pylons or powerlines and in maize crops or near kiwifruit
orchards, he said.

In those situations ground staff would pull the plants out of the ground.

Mr Everest said police had noticed more people were growing cannabis
indoors, as they could produce a larger crop.

Growers were also growing more "bush-dak".

"Consumer feedback" the police had received suggested that the quality was
much better.

"It is a bit like the comparison to hot-house tomatoes compared to the ones
grown outside."

Cannabis was one of the biggest income earners in his area, he said.

"Cannabis is the economy in the Eastern Bay."