Cabramatta drug bust sparks memories of heroin crisis

TRAGIC heroin addicts roamed the streets like zombies at the height of Cabramatta’s heroin crisis in the late 90s. A significant bust last week left police who remember the heinous crisis frustrated.

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TRAGIC heroin addicts roamed the streets like zombies at the height of Cabramatta’s heroin crisis in the late 90s.

The southwest Sydney suburb was overrun by the heinous heroin trade until supply petered out in the early 2000s.

The Drug and Firearms Squad’s Detective Chief Inspector Jason Weinstein said dozens of dealers could go through the dock in a single night when he was a detective in Cabramatta between 1996 and 2001.

NSW Detective Chief Inspector Jason Weinstein worked in Cabramatta during the height of its heroin crisis. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

“If you stepped off at the train station back then you would probably find five to 10 drug dealers straight away trying to sell you heroin,” Insp Weinstein said.

“It was rampant — there was prolific street dealing, stabbings, overdoses and unit blocks covered in a blanket of discarded needles.”

A young woman was arrested and charged with drug dealing after she sold heroin to undercover police officers in the late 90s.

Cabramatta was the state’s heroin capital because of the purity and volume of the drugs on offer.

Street policing eventually pushed dealers into drug houses and whole blocks would be overrun with a steady stream of dealers and users pouring in and out.

“I arrested a university lecturer from Armidale at 11pm one night,” Insp Weinstein said.

“The lecturer drove all the way from Armidale to Cabramatta to get their heroin and then they were going straight back that night.”

In 2001, the rotunda in Canley Vale Park was lit with ultraviolet blue lights to prevent heroin users from finding veins and shooting up. Picture: Guy Wilmott

Violence spilt from drug dens into suburban streets as major gangs who controlled the supply did battle.

“Overdoses were the worst thing we saw, people just dying in the back of unit blocks with needles sticking out of them,” Insp Weinstein said.

“But there was a lot of street level violence and murders as well — there was an incident where a man was shot in the back, and in the CCTV footage we watched him stumble down the road until he died.”

The Gulf War in Afghanistan eventually interrupted the drug’s supply and a persistent proactive approach to stamping out heroin allowed police to get the crisis under control.

A drug addict was seen shooting up heroin with a syringe behind a block of units in Cabramatta East in May 1997.

However, Insp Weinstein said it was worrying to observe heroin back in Cabramatta after a 45-year-old man was charged with allegedly importing $8 million of the drug last week.

“It is very frustrating to see,” Insp Weinstein said.

“Whether it’s heroin, cocaine, ice or prescription drugs, I don’t understand anyone that wants to financially gain from the ills of others.”

A drug addict shoots up heroin with a syringe in Cabramatta in July 1997.

A new era has dawned in Cabramatta, where migrant children are less likely to live with the tension between their former culture and new expectations.

“Back in the late 90s, a lot of kids were either born in Australia or came here when they were very young, and they lived with the conflict between the expectations of their new culture and what their mums and dads wanted,” Insp Weinstein said.

“These kids now get to make their own paths.”