Exclusive: Drug Trafficking In The Pacific
September 19, 2018 | Drug Crime
International crime syndicates are increasingly using the Pacific Island countries as gateways for smuggling drugs. Crime groups are increasingly preying on vulnerable Pacific Island countries to traffic drugs to lucrative markets like New Zealand and Australia.Public officials in the region are poorly paid and therefore relatively easy to corrupt with mass volumes of money.Organised crime is a serious risk to the Australian border and the Pacific is a "high priority" region.The geographic positioning of Pacific Island countries such...
Deaths From Powerful Opiate Fentanyl Rise In Los Angeles County
April 16, 2016 | Drug Crime
There are signs that deaths connected to fentanyl, a powerful painkiller tied to a string of fatal overdoses in Northern California, are on the rise in the Los Angeles area, law enforcement and health officials said this week. The drug, an opiate used on patients after surgery that’s up to 100 times stronger than morphine, is appearing now more than ever in overdoses in California as a prescription drug abuse epidemic evolves nationwide. Deadly in small doses, drug dealers and producers are using the opiate to either spike doses of he...
Authorities Seize Drug Blamed For Bizarre Crimes Overseas
October 2, 2015 | Drug Crime
Authorities claim to have seized drugs including Flakka, a synthetic stimulant blamed for bizarre crimes overseas including a case of a man having sex with a tree in public. Wellington Police said a new joint operation with Customs targeted the importers of psychoactive substances and controlled drugs ordered online. The seized drugs included meth, synthetic cannabinoid, ecstasy, and Alpha PVP, known abroad by names including Flakka. Police said officers teamed up with Customs staff to raid six addresses in the Hutt Valley and Porirua...
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Online Romance Seekers Targets For Drug Cartels
July 28, 2015 | Drug Crime
People looking for love online are increasingly becoming targets for international drug cartels, a New Zealand lawyer says. Craig Tuck, known for his work on high-profile drug trafficking cases including the Anthony De Malmanche trial, said the cases he was involved in were just the "tip of a vast and emerging iceberg". People searching for romance online, as well as international travellers, were falling victim to "new and frightening" drug supply chain exploitation, he said. Anthony de Malmanche, a client of Craig Tuck, is in a Ba...
Company Fined Over Unlawful Drug Test
July 24, 2015 | Drug Crime
Carter Holt Harvey has been fined $10,000 over an unlawful drug test. The company must pay the money to the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union after it used the pretext of a random drug and alcohol test to deny site access to a local union organiser. Corey Wallace was banned from the Carter Holt Harvey site in Nelson after he refused to take the so-called random drug test. The EPMU's Alan Clarence says they're pleased with the Employment Relations Authority ruling which has found the actions were unlawful and in breach of i...
Police Warn Facebook Drug Dealers They're Being Watched
July 22, 2015 | Drug Crime
Police have been snooping on people's Facebook profiles, and using the evidence to carry out drug raids. The monitoring has been exposed by members of a blackmarket Facebook group, who complained of receiving letters out of the blue from police, warning them they were being watched. One unidentified user received a letter from the Canterbury Organised Crime Squad, dated July 15, warned that their membership of a group suspected to be aiding illegal drug deals had been noticed. They might wish to "review" their membership of the group,...
Psychedelic Drug 'N-Bomb' (NBOMe) In New Zealand
April 20, 2015 | Drug Crime
Police and medical authorities are warning about a new LSD-like drug that can turn users so violent it takes four or five people to subdue them. Police had to restrain patients tripping on a drug called "N-bomb" so that paramedics could get them to hospital on four separate occasions over the past three weeks, Wellington Hospital emergency medicine specialist Paul Quigley said. Four to five hospital staff were required to pin down the one who got "really out of control". They yelled, kicked and spat, but so far hospital staff had avoi...
Pharmacist Struck Off Over Thefts
February 20, 2015 | Drug Crime
Hidden cameras fitted to catch chemist stealing drugs including anxiety medicine and morning-after pill. A "self-medicating" pharmacist who stole prescription drugs has been de-registered. Leslie Allan Campbell, who earlier admitted four criminal charges of theft in a special relationship, was called before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal to answer charges brought by the Pharmacy Council. The tribunal heard another pharmacist raised concerns about Campbell's behaviour with the owners of Amcal Pharmacy in Motueka. They h...
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Dangers of the "flesh-eating zombie drug" called krokodil
September 26, 2014 | Drug Crime
Reports of a "flesh-eating zombie drug" called krokodil, accompanied by lurid images first appeared in English during 2010. The drug serves as an excellent illustration of the havoc bad drug policies can wreak on communities. Krokodil first emerged in provincial Russia during the early 2000s. It's an illicit injectable drug, easily baked in home kitchens from codeine-containing medication, iodine, phosphorus, paint thinner, and lighter fuel. Its active ingredient is intended to be desomorphine, a synthetic opiate, but most home-baked...
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Gang's Number Plates Taunt Police
September 17, 2014 | Drug Crime
Violent gang members are taunting Australian police by driving around Sydney in expensive cars with number plates that use the initials of police squads. At the scene of a recent fatal shooting of a Brothers 4 Life member in Revesby Heights were two cars with the plates MEOC and MEOC 63. MEOCS is the acronym used by NSW Police for the specialist Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, which targets ethnic-based crime, particularly in southwestern Sydney. Brothers 4 Life are one of their main targets. Parked outside the unit block where ...