OPS TARGET DOPE TRADE

POLICE hope tinny house and street gang networks will topple like a
house of cards as a result of two new initiatives.

Operations Buyer Beware and House of Cards have Counties Manukau
Police cracking down on street gang members and those who purchase
cannabis.

Marijuana suppliers were previously prime targets for police, but that
focus now broadens to include concentrated efforts on buyers of the
drug.

Howick police detective sergeant Karyn Malthus says it has
far-reaching implications for purchasers.

Less than two weeks into the operation, 22 people have been charged in
relation to acquiring cannabis. Their occupations include a painter,
electrician, nurse, landscaper, labourer, plumber, mechanic,
unemployed and students.

Ms Malthus says a "shocking number" of people are in employed
work.

"They're probably dealing with equipment and vehicles and buying drugs
during the day. Some of them are wearing their fluorescent vests.

"People also have to remember how it'll affect their future. Part of
our campaign will be following up with the employer, where it's deemed
proper to do so."

Ms Malthus says typically they've been males aged between 20 and 40,
who live outside Otara.

Eastern area police commander, Inspector Jim Searle, says he supports
recent comments made by elected members and community leaders about
the threat drug houses pose (Times, March 12).

"While tinnie/meth house enforcement will continue, the buyers of
drugs - those people who travel into Otara, even as far a field as the
North Shore, west Auckland and the city, locals, and anyone caught
buying drugs - will face prosecution," says Mr Searle.

"A zero tolerance towards drug buyers will be enforced. The people who
provide the demand for the supply of drugs will face the consequences
of their choice to buy and consume drugs."

Mr Searle says families and the community will be involved in turning
those people away from drugs.

"Those from out of town should beware because their families, their
teachers, their employers - if they are in work vehicles or time -
will also become involved."

Police are also targeting street gang bosses and their hierarchy, he
says.

"Those people will be the subject of the 'house of cards' operation,
wherein street gang members will feature on a deck of cards,
distributed to individual police teams tasked with targeting that
offender."

Ms Malthus says the area-wide Operation Buyer Beware involves all
staff and is permanent policy.