Top Detective says education is the key to stopping future meth addicts

Meth is wreaking havoc among South Australia’s teenagers and the most experienced cop on the drug beat says there’s a time and place to stop it.

The state’s most senior drug and organised crime detective believes police, health and education departments must work together in the fight against methamphetamines.

And in a blunt warning, Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Taylor said efforts should be focused on preventing young people from experimenting with methamphetamines and becoming the next generation of users.

There are many drug rehabilitation programs, but he believes that unless methamphetamine users themselves decided to stop taking drugs, the current crisis would continue unabated despite the combined efforts of respective agencies.

A veteran of 30 years tackling organised crime syndicates and bikie gangs trafficking drugs in South Australia, Detective Chief Supt. Taylor said there was a “real need to get in very early’’ to alert young people to the dangers of methamphetamines and stop them “experimenting and developing an uncontrollable drug addiction.’’

“It is about them making informed decisions, making good decisions that will not be life changing for them,’’ he said.

He said sadly, the use of meth has been “in an upward spiral” for a long time.

“This is where it is really important for police, education and health to get in early, into the formative years of youth, to make sure they don’t go down a destructive path. That’s where I genuinely believe the key lies,’’ he said.

Detective Superintendent Steve Taylor, officer-in-charge of the Serious and Organised Crime Investigation Branch, with a high-powered military rifle linked to the Comanchero bikie gang seized in 2020 Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

He said SAPOL has community engagement groups which delivered some drug awareness training in schools and with online programs. In addition, while many schools had their own drug education programs there were opportunities for this to be expanded to target young people while they were at the age they were most likely to start experimenting with drugs and subject to peer pressure to use them.

Such programs should also include “discussion and direction’’ from within their own families as part of their education process.

“We are not naive to the fact that youths want to experiment with different things, including unfortunately illicit drugs, so I think we need to stress and to show the terrible effects of illicit drug use and how it impacts on communities, lives, families and destroys dreams,’’ he said.

“It often forces good people into a life of criminality and a destructive lifestyle.’’

An Australian Federal Police-led multi-agency investigation has resulted in the arrest of three men and the seizure of 313kg of crystal methamphetamine, the largest haul of the drug destined for South Australia. Picture: AFP

While it is impossible to put a figure on the number of methamphetamine users in SA, accurate consumption figures are readily available through the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s wastewater testing initiative.

Somewhat alarmingly, South Australians consistently rank among the highest users in the nation. The latest report published in June found that 8.8 tonnes of methamphetamine worth $7.7bn was being consumed nationally – with more than a tonne of that by SA users.

The report revealed Adelaide is no longer the nation’s ice capital, dipping to second place behind Perth as overall drug use across the country increased as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and supply chains reopened.

And with that increased demand, those trafficking drugs know they will have little trouble offloading any product they can either manufacture or smuggle into the state.

Det. Chief Supt. Taylor said the wastewater analysis tool was valuable and police often use it to gauge the success of an operation.

“We can map our effectiveness in terms of the interruption of supply to the market,’’ he said.

“But we also use the results to deploy our resources in a particular area if required.’’

He said while the SA drug market was similar to eastern states, party drugs such as cocaine were far more prevalent there.

“But we do see an increase in cocaine type drugs here on weekends, which indicates it is more of a traditional party type drug as opposed to the methamphetamine and cannabis and GHB trade here that remains relatively stable.

“With methamphetamines there is little fluctuation between weekdays and weekends which tends to indicate it is more an addiction problem as opposed to a drug of choice for a special occasion.’’

Last financial year police located just 31 clandestine laboratories. This compares with the pre-Covid-19 figure of 58 in 2018-19.

“Five or 10 years ago up to 80 clan labs were being found a year but there has been a downward trend in the quantity and we are now sitting around to 50-odd a year,’’ Taylor said.

But while the number of labs has remained relatively static, there has been an increase in so-called “scatter imports’’ of methamphetamines through the post.

“Typically we will find people might try and import small quantities, but large numbers,’’ he said.

“They might do 10 or 20 scatter imports of small quantities. If a large percentage get seized by law enforcement, a small number will still get through.

“It is not just syndicates, it is individuals doing it now. A lot of gear is coming through Australia Post.’’

STATE and federal agencies have stopped 60kg of methamphetamine from being smuggled into Adelaide. The Australian Federal Police said a 43-year-old Hells Angels associate was arrested.

Some of the more significant seizures last financial year include seized 10,000 counterfeit Xanax tablets in May that were concealed in poultry food, 2kg of amphetamine tablets in March and 3.9kg cocaine concealed in a smoke machine that was also detected in March.

“Not every seizure we get results in an arrest, it is just seized and destroyed,’’ he said.

And just as importing ready for sale drugs is rampant, so too are attempts to import precursor chemicals for clandestine laboratories.

They typically come from China because of their availability there and crucially, those who get caught importing them face lesser penalties if caught, compared with importing finished drugs.

In SA, precursor chemicals are very difficult to obtain because of work done by police more than a decade ago to have legislation changed restricting vital ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, which is now restricted.

That move alone, which saw pseudoephedrine in many medications replaced with phenylephrine and stopped over-the-counter sales of others, delivered a fatal blow to many smaller operators of clandestine laboratories.

But while that landscape had altered considerably, those behind the majority of the methamphetamine trade has not. It was still a combination or organised crime syndicates and outlaw motorcycle gangs – often intertwined in some operations.

“My experience has been for the larger syndicated type groups producing good quantities of product, typically there is an outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) involvement somewhere along the chain,’’ Taylor said.

As has consistently been the case for many years, the major threat to SA in this area was from OMCG.

“It is typical of the gangs to seek profit from wherever they can. If the opportunities present across the board, they will take it,’’ he said.

“Typically, we find it is three or four of the gangs.’’

SAPOL Operations Inspector of Organised Crime Darren Fielke, SAPOL Assistant Commissioner Peter Harvey and SAPOL Crime Branch Chief, Superintendent Steve Taylor during ANOM raids. Picture: AFP/SAPOL

While elements of each gang are entrenched in drug manufacture and trafficking, he said it was clear the Comancheros in SA were heavily involved as highlighted in the recent Operation Ironside encrypted Anom app sting that resulted in the bulk of the gang’s hierarchy and many associates being charged with dozens of offences including drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to murder. More than 70kg of methamphetamine and more than $1m in cash was also seized.

“It was very clear what the Comanchero were doing here,’’ he said.

“Some of the other gangs are probably operating under a bit more of a shield of anonymity. It is fair to say because the Comanchero were using the ANOM App, there would be nothing to suggest other clubs are not using similar applications to communicate.’’

These would include various encrypted digital platforms such as Cypher, Signal and even WhatsApp.

“A number of encrypted platforms have been taken down overseas, but there are still a number available to these groups,’’ Det. Chief Supt. Taylor said.

And just as the same groups are more often than not involved, so too are the same individuals.

“But where we do take individuals out and put them before the courts and if they are incarcerated, generally there is someone who will move in and fill that void quite quickly,’’ Taylor said.

While Det. Chief Supt. Taylor is loath to describe the fight against the methamphetamine scourge as a war, he believes it can be tackled by a united effort by all sectors – education, police, health and in the state’s courts.

“There would not be a detective alive who is not sometimes frustrated by some of the penalties imposed by the courts,’’ he said.

“The provisions for very strong deterrent penalties are available. It would be nice to see those used.’’