Police deal with 277 drug-related offences in 3 months

Drug crime is a major headache for Gladstone police, with more drug-related offences than any other category.

Gladstone police have recorded 277 drug offences since late February. Photo: John Gass

DRUG-related crime is a major headache for Gladstone police, who have recorded 277 offences since late February – including an alleged $70,000 seizure this week.

Gladstone Criminal Investigation Branch Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Andersen said there had been some significant drug busts in the area.

“Just this week in Miriam Vale, police did a traffic intercept where they located $70,000, which we will allege was the proceeds of crime,” he said.

“There were two gentlemen charged with trafficking in Agnes Waters earlier this year.

“They were located with 70 pounds of cannabis and $70,000.

“Last year in November we seized from a person on the Bruce Highway 170 grams of methamphetamine and also 60 grams of cocaine, and that person was charged with trafficking.”

The Queensland Police online crime map shows of the 277 offences between February 21 and May 20, the Gladstone region had 208 offences, Tannum Sands and Boyne Island 19, Calliope 20, Agnes Waters and Seventeen Seventy 18 and nine in the Miriam Vale/Boyne Valley area.

Drug crime was the most prolific of all 1209 offences in this period, exceeding 230 other theft-related crimes and 181 traffic and other related offences.

Snr-Sgt Tony Andersen said officers encountered drug-related crime in the region every day.

“The number of offences is a good thing – it shows that police are detecting more dug offences. That’s one crime stat we actually like to see an increase in,” he said.

“The main drugs that we see in Gladstone are methamphetamine, or ice, cannabis and we occasionally see a little bit of cocaine.

“Within the last year we have seized drugs like a bit of heroin, some LSD, but meth is our main drug we get.”

Drugs can be found everywhere in the region.

“It’s a Gladstone-wide thing. We don’t really target particular suburbs, police will be proactive across the whole region,” he said.

“We’ve had operations from Agnes Waters to the western areas of the Gladstone patrol group to the Gladstone City itself.

“Police have daily interactions with people who are either using or having some sort of association or use of drugs ... it’s a daily thing for all police.

“Drugs can be used by people of any gender, any age, it can be anyone who decides they want to start using drugs for any reason.

“Every police officer in every section in the region is actively targeting drug offenders.”

If you use or are associated with drugs you are bound to get caught, Snr-Sgt Andersen said.

“There are consequences for your actions and drugs can have a huge impact on yours and your families’ lives,” he said.

“Drugs can lead to property crime, marriage breakdowns, all sorts of social issues come from drug use.

“We try and support people we arrest and offer them as much support as we can when they come into our custody.”

Anyone who suspects drug activity in their area can call Crime Stoppers, Snr-Sgt Andersen said.

“People can ring Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Gladstone police, or if it’s an emergency ring triple-0,” he said.

“We make an assessment of what information we get and conduct our own investigation based on that information then decide whether we act on it.”