New police figures show clandestine backyard drug labs are widespread across South Australia
CLANDESTINE backyard drug labs are widespread across South Australia, new figures from SA Police show. SEE THE MAP.
BACKYARD clandestine drug labs are as dangerous as the products they produce.
Disturbing new data from SA Police reveal the problem is widespread, with more than one toxic drug den busted a week over a two-year period.
A staggering 142 homemade labs producing deadly drugs such as crystal meth, known on the streets as ice, were closed by police in 2016 and 2017.
A Freedom of Information request also revealed Ottoway and Parafield Gardens topped the suburbs with the most drug den busts, with four each.
Labs were found across the state, as far west as Ceduna, Bordertown and Berri in the state’s east and Victor Harbor, south of Adelaide.
The labs were found most in Adelaide’s north and western suburbs, totalling 104 in SA towns, cities and suburbs.
NOTE: The icons on this map indicate suburbs where drug labs were located, not specific streets or addresses
Police and Emergency Services Minister Corey Wingard told The Sunday Mail illegal clandestine drug laboratories are a “scourge on communities for the hazards they create in neighbourhoods” and the risk they present to emergency services personnel.
“The perpetrators behind these types of activities will often work with volatile chemicals that are highly explosive and can put surrounding areas at risk,” Mr Wingard said.
“Often when these makeshift laboratories are exposed, police and emergency services workers are placed at risk of exposure to toxic or corrosive chemicals and the likelihood of explosion.
A SAPOL spokesman said clan labs have exploded and severely damaged properties — and in some cases, resulting in death and serious injuries.
“These labs are often located in residential areas,” he said,adding: “These set ups use highly volatile and dangerous chemicals and seriously threaten neighbourhood safety and the environment.”
Last year a family man, Amedeo Macchiavelli, 34, involved in running the state’s biggest clandestine drugs laboratory, in 2014, wrote a letter of apology to Walker Flat locals, who feared it now had a reputation as drug producers.
In 2016 the then State Government gave health and council workers powers to ensure properties used as clandestine drug laboratories are free of toxic chemicals before more people move in. Officials warn the labs are leaving a toxic legacy, with meth cooks contaminating properties with a cocktail of deadly chemicals and dumping the waste in national parks and waterways.
The SAPOL spokesman said police encouraged peoplepeople who suspected their neighbours of running drug labs to contact Crime Stoppers.
“The Crime Stoppers hotline provides a mechanism for the public to confidentially help police attack organised manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs,” he said.
— Map: Greg Barila