Police disrupt interstate ice ring as Katherine crime cracks cops
Police were forced to abandon an operation in Katherine because of an over subscription of crooks, and 1.5kg of meth bound for Territory communities has been seized. SEE THE VIDEO.
Northern Territory
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Methamphetamine totalling 1.5kg and about 175 grams of cocaine were seized in a weekend police operation targeting schedule one drug supplies across the Northern Territory.
Police at the weekend arrested a man in the Top End who had travelled to the Territory from interstate along with another local man.
The arrests come after police had seized 8kg of methamphetamine in the Territory since the commencement of Operation Ford in October, with dozens of arrests carried out during the life of the operation.
NT Police commander Peter Malley said the seizures had made a dent in the Northern Territory’s schedule one drug markets.
“It’s a really significant result for the Northern Territory in seizing that quantity,” he said. “Generally we would not see those quantities seized within the Northern Territory, but one kilogram seizures unfortunately are becoming more and more frequent.
“We’ve had information of people travelling into the Territory from interstate and people that have gotten through, and then the drugs are located in houses once they’re here.
“It’s not like cannabis with big packages where you would drive it in a vehicle. With air travel you can have it secreted in a case quite easily. Commercial travel is what we’re seeing at the moment.”
Police estimated the street value of the seizure around $1000 a gram, meaning the latest seizure was valued around $1.5m.
Also in the Top End, officers in Katherine were forced to end an operation targeting crime and anti-social behaviour when the local watch-houses filled up.
Mr Malley said about a dozen officers were deployed to Katherine on Wednesday, with 36 arrests made within 48 hours.
He said that stretched the number of people detained in the watchhouse to 57, or twice its maximum capacity.
“We very quickly overwhelmed the Katherine watch-house with prisoners,” he said.
“We paused the operation and came back to Darwin and the team had the weekend off ahead of deploying to Nhulunbuy.”
Mr Malley said there were currently 272 people detained in watch-houses across the Territory as well as 17 police prisoners, with 15 prisoners detained at Peter McAuley Centre in Berrimah.
The latest police crime statistics released on Friday showed there had been 1138 crimes against the person in the Northern Territory in November 2024 and 1835 property crimes.
Mr Malley said he had noticed evidence the new government’s tough-on-crime approach was working.
“Last week in Alice Springs I can certainly see a difference down there,” he said.
“One really good measurement that I use is the burglaries, unlawful entries, how many break-ins are happening.
“Before Christmas we were getting up to 15 a day, 40-50 a week, now they’re down to their teens. Once again, it’s not acceptable, but they’re moving in the right direction.”
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