Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to ramp up heat on organised crime groups in wake of meth use rise

It is “business as usual” for organised crime groups flooding the streets with cheap methamphetamine, but police and the ACIC are turning up the heat.

Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission are ramping up their focus on bikies and other organised crime groups as cheap methamphetamine continues to flood the streets of South Australia.

Despite reduced opportunities for drug importation because of COVID, police intelligence indicates that South Australia is home to the cheapest methamphetamine in the country and the highest use among addicts.

ACIC executive director of intelligence operations Matt Rippon last night told The Advertiser that while COVID had shut down many industries, it was “business as usual” for organised crime groups.

“The illicit drug market is resilient, even with COVID-19s impacts,” he said.

“The closure of international travel did not affect any drug monitored by the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program getting into our country.

“We also recorded record levels of methylamphetamine consumption across Australia with wastewater testing.”

He said there was significant intelligence showing that wholesale price of crystal methamphetamine in South Australia had plummeted.

“More meth available at cheaper prices in the state with the reputation as the ‘meth capital of

Australia’ is alarming for law enforcement and the wider community,” he said.

“Australia is in a war on ice, and organised criminals involved with the supply of this devastating drug should know we have you in our sights.

“We won’t let you prey on our communities to make a profit. Our approach involves significant law enforcement effort to interrupt the work of the organised crime groups feeding meth to our community, however Illicit drugs are not just a law enforcement

issue and no single approach in isolation will achieve sustained decreases in use.”

He called for a holistic approach to combating drug supply in the community.

Earlier this month SA police Serious and Organised Crime Branch officer-in-charge Superintendent Stephen Taylor said COVID had affected the supply chain of illicit substances, but not the demand.

“We’ve been quite successful in interrupting that supply chain, so that is a positive but the demand is always high for methamphetamine unfortunately,” Superintendent Taylor said.

“That can be for a variety of reasons including people’s inability to move within states freely, overseas trade and also some pretty significant seizures we’ve had over the past few months.”

Four kilograms of methamphetamine seized by police in 2016. Picture Roger Wyman

The focus on bikies and other organised groups involved in the drug manufacturing process comes as part of a larger concerted effort to combat the influence of the groups in South Australia.

Last week the Hells Angels rural fortress Ponde was declared a prescribed precinct, restricting the access of any member of a bikie gang or organised crime group.

Earlier this month almost $2 million worth of methamphetamine was seized hidden in pulley wheels bound for Adelaide.

The 3.6kg haul was detected in Melbourne and ended with the arrest of a Klemzig man of commercial drug trafficking charges.